scholarly journals Elaboration and psychometric analysis of a questionnaire to evaluate the knowledge of community health workers about breastfeeding

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 559-566
Author(s):  
Lanuza Borges Oliveira ◽  
Frederico Marques Andrade ◽  
Pedro Henrique Dias Cabral ◽  
Antônio Prates Caldeira
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Hypothesis Test ◽  
Temporal Consistency ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Cronbach’S Alpha ◽  
Perfect Agreement ◽  
Significance Level ◽  
Cronbach's Alpha

Abstract Objectives: to develop and analyze the psychometric properties of a questionnaire to assess community health workers’ knowledge on breastfeeding. Methods: this is a methodological study for the development of an instrument and analysis of validity and reliability. For the elaboration of items and identification of dimensions, a literature review was conducted. The items were submitted to the evaluation of a committee of judges, for apparent and content analysis. Construct validation was conducted through hypothesis test, with the participation of 282 community health workers and 19 pediatricians and obstetric nurses. For analysis and comparison of scores, the Mann-Whitney U test was used, assuming a significance level of 5%. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and temporal consistency of the instrument was assessed using test-retest and Kappa analysis. Results: the final instrument presented a favorable opinion from the committee of judges. The hypothesis test showed that the questionnaire has discriminatory power to assess professionals with a higher level of knowledge (p<0.001). The Kappa test revealed that 63% of the items showed substantive to almost perfect agreement. The 32-item questionnaire showed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.794. Conclusion: the instrument developed was valid and reliable, allowing effective measurement of community health workers’ knowledge on breastfeeding.

scholarly journals Availability of Essential Commodities and Related Bottlenecks for Community Health System: Systematic Literature Review

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ami Pradhan ◽  
Erin Bogue ◽  
Benjamin Schreiber ◽  
Hannah Sarah Dini ◽  
Hitesh Hurkchand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Hypothesis Test ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
National Level ◽  
Health Facilities ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Background: This paper explores the extent of community-level stock-out of essential and program commodities for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) among Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), and identifies the underlying bottlenecks leading to such stock-outs.Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted of published and grey literature. 48 studies containing information on the number or percentage of CHWs or health facilities (HFs) stocked-out, or reasons for stock-outs at these levels, were included. In addition, interviews were conducted with domain experts from different organizations working on community health to identify primary reasons for stock-outs. The qualitative data regarding reasons for stock-outs were categorized under different themes, using a content analysis method. Results: 48.09% [CI 95%: 39.28 - 56.90] of the Community Health Workers and 54.76 % [CI 95%: 43.54 - 65.98] of the health facilities in SSA countries included in this study experienced stock-outs of essential commodities. A hypothesis test showed no significant difference in stock-out rates between CHWs and HFs. The most frequently cited reason for CHW stock-outs was a lack of financial resources, leading to inadequate national level stocks, affecting supply available at the last mile. Moreover, issues at HF and CHW levels in the following areas contributed to stock-outs: transportation, data and estimation of needs, human resources, and stock management and storage. These significant bottlenecks hinder the ability of CHWs to save lives.Conclusion: Stock-outs of health commodities impact almost half of CHWs, preventing effective service delivery. Many factors contribute to stock-outs, which occur at all levels of the health supply chain. A system strengthening approach is necessary to reduce CHW stock-outs. Sparse data, differing definitions of stock-outs, and inconsistent reporting metrics posed significant challenges to analyzing results from reviewed studies. Therefore, a set of standard metrics to measure the rate, period, and frequency of stock-outs in future studies is recommended.

scholarly journals Development of a cello performance measurement tool: Validity and reliability study

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 859-868
Author(s):  
Mehmet Can Çiftçibaşı
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Measurement Tool ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Cronbach’S Alpha ◽  
Significance Level ◽  
Cronbach's Alpha ◽  
Final Exams ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Cello Performance

The aim of this study was to develop a new performance measurement tool with proven validity and reliability to be used in the semester final exams of the individual instrument (cello) courses in institutions in which music teachers are trained. The study has a descriptive nature and a documentary scan was made during the preparation of the items to be included in the measurement tool. The participants of the study comprised 17 instructors who teach cello in 17 different universities in Turkey and a total of 50 students from 4 different music teaching programmes. In the study, two different data collection tools were used, namely the opinion form applied to the instructors of the cello lesson and the measurement tool developed by the researcher, in order to determine the importance of the criterion skills in the tool. Internal consistency was examined for the reliability of the tool and Cronbach's alpha and Cohen's kappa formulas were used. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was determined to be .94 and the statistical significance level was determined to be .05. As a result of the study, a valid and reliable measurement tool for measuring cello performance was developed. Keywords: Cello education, Measuring cello performance, Performance measurement tool

scholarly journals Availability of Essential Commodities and Related Bottlenecks for Community Health System: Systematic Literature Review

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ami Pradhan ◽  
Erin Bogue ◽  
Benjamin Schreiber ◽  
Hannah Sarah Dini ◽  
Hitesh Hurkchand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Hypothesis Test ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
National Level ◽  
Health Facilities ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Background: This paper explores the extent of community-level stock-out of essential and program commodities for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) among Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), and identifies the underlying bottlenecks leading to such stock-outs. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted of published and grey literature. 48 studies containing information on the number or percentage of CHWs or health facilities (HFs) stocked-out, or reasons for stock-outs at these levels, were included. In addition, interviews were conducted with domain experts from different organizations working on community health to identify primary reasons for stock-outs. The qualitative data regarding reasons for stock-outs were categorized under different themes, using a content analysis method. Results: 48.09% [CI 95%: 39.28 - 56.90] of the Community Health Workers and 54.76 % [CI 95%: 43.54 - 65.98] of the health facilities in SSA countries included in this study experienced stock-outs of essential commodities. A hypothesis test showed no significant difference in stock-out rates between CHWs and HFs. The most frequently cited reason for CHW stock-outs was a lack of financial resources, leading to inadequate national level stocks, affecting supply available at the last mile. Moreover, issues at HF and CHW levels in the following areas contributed to stock-outs: transportation, data and estimation of needs, human resources, and stock management and storage. These significant bottlenecks hinder the ability of CHWs to save lives. Conclusion: Stock-outs of health commodities impact almost half of CHWs, preventing effective service delivery. Many factors contribute to stock-outs, which occur at all levels of the health supply chain. A system strengthening approach is necessary to reduce CHW stock-outs. Sparse data, differing definitions of stock-outs, and inconsistent reporting metrics posed significant challenges to analyzing results from reviewed studies. Therefore, a set of standard metrics to measure the rate, period, and frequency of stock-outs in future studies is recommended.

scholarly journals Availability of Essential Commodities and Related Bottlenecks for Community Health System: Systematic Literature Review

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ami Pradhan ◽  
Erin Bogue ◽  
Benjamin Schreiber ◽  
Hannah Sarah Dini ◽  
Hitesh Hurkchand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Hypothesis Test ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
National Level ◽  
Health Facilities ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Background: This paper explores the extent of community-level stock-out of essential and program commodities for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) among Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), and identifies the underlying bottlenecks leading to such stock-outs. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted of published and grey literature. 48 studies containing information on the number or percentage of CHWs or health facilities (HFs) stocked-out, or reasons for stock-outs at these levels, were included. In addition, interviews were conducted with domain experts from different organizations working on community health to identify primary reasons for stock-outs. The qualitative data regarding reasons for stock-outs were categorized under different themes, using a content analysis method. Results: 48.09% [CI 95%: 39.28 - 56.90] of the Community Health Workers and 54.76 % [CI 95%: 43.54 - 65.98] of the health facilities in SSA countries included in this study experienced stock-outs of essential commodities. A hypothesis test showed no significant difference in stock-out rates between CHWs and HFs. The most frequently cited reason for CHW stock-outs was a lack of financial resources, leading to inadequate national level stocks, affecting supply available at the last mile. Moreover, issues at HF and CHW levels in the following areas contributed to stock-outs: transportation, data and estimation of needs, human resources, and stock management and storage. These significant bottlenecks hinder the ability of CHWs to save lives. Conclusion: Stock-outs of health commodities impact almost half of CHWs, preventing effective service delivery. Many factors contribute to stock-outs, which occur at all levels of the health supply chain. A system strengthening approach is necessary to reduce CHW stock-outs. Sparse data, differing definitions of stock-outs, and inconsistent reporting metrics posed significant challenges to analyzing results from reviewed studies. Therefore, a set of standard metrics to measure the rate, period, and frequency of stock-outs in future studies is recommended.

The overuse of Cronbach’s alpha in psychology of religion: A suggested alternative with a primer on how & when to use them

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Jane Charles
Keyword(s):  
Psychology Of Religion ◽  
Scale Construction ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Cronbach’S Alpha ◽  
Cronbach's Alpha ◽  
Scale Reliability ◽  
Methodological Rigor ◽  
Religiosity And Spirituality ◽  
Simple Definition

The Psychology of Religion has had a tradition measuring things that are seemingly difficult to measure, such as one’s level of religiosity or spirituality – concepts that are polysemantic, so do not have a simple definition. In doing so, researchers have developed scales to measure such constructs. This trend in Psychology of Religion research will continue as researchers start to conduct studies in non-Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic (WEIRD) populations, as they will require new scales that are appropriate for the way that these populations conceptualize religiosity and spirituality. Scale construction takes multiple steps, which most researchers are well-acquainted with. One important step is to demonstrate both validity and reliability. In the Psychology of Religion, an overwhelming majority of researchers use Cronbach’s alpha to estimate scale reliability. However, alpha has multiple preconditions that can easily be violated in psychology research that are rarely tested for, let alone adjusted for. Much like with using parametric statistical analyses when parametric assumptions are violated, this approach may be leading to inaccurate reporting. This article will discuss; (1) whether alpha should be used at all in Psychology of Religion research and, if so, when it is appropriate; (2) introduce another estimate of scale reliability, Omega, and show how and it might be calculated; (3) provide examples of how these techniques might be taught to students studying Psychology of Religion at undergraduate and higher levels. In doing so, I hope to move the entire field of Psychology of Religion forward in terms of methodological rigor.

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