Abstract

Background: Functional constipation is a common problem in childhood. The parents’ understanding of defecation and constipation in children affects the prevention and recognition of this disorder.

Objective: The aim of his research is to develop parental Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) questionnaire towards defecation and constipation in children.

Methods: The questionnaire was developed by the authors. The Item Objective Congruence index (IOC) by 5 experts was used for evaluating contents of the questionnaire. Then, a cross-sectional survey of 100 individuals was carried out to establish internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha.

Results: The original KAP questionnaire included 31 items categorized under the 3 domains of knowledge, attitude, and practice. During expert validation, 5 items were disqualified. For assessing internal consistency, the Cronbach's alpha value was 0.229. Eight items were excluded to strengthen the internal consistency. For the adjusted questionnaire with 18 items (5 from knowledge, 5 from attitude, and 8 from practice), the Cronbach's alpha values increased to 0.511.

Conclusions: The developed questionnaire with 18 items has improved homogeneity. These findings help develop measurement tools to assess knowledge, attitude and practice on defecation and constipation in children for Thai parents to encourage early detection and prevention of constipation.