UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Measuring social norms related to handwashing: development and psychometric testing of measurement scales in a low-income urban setting in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

Amon-Tanoh, Maud Akissi; Lapinski, Maria Knight; McCambridge, Jim; Blon, Patrice Konan; Kouamé, Hermann Aka; Ploubidis, George; Nguipdop-Djomo, Patrick; (2022) Measuring social norms related to handwashing: development and psychometric testing of measurement scales in a low-income urban setting in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. BMJ Open , 12 (4) , Article e048929. 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048929. Green open access

[thumbnail of Ploubidis_e048929.full.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Ploubidis_e048929.full.pdf - Published Version

Download (833kB) | Preview

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To design and test the psychometric properties of four context-specific norm-related scales around handwashing with soap after toilet use: (1) perceived handwashing descriptive norms (HWDN); (2) perceived handwashing injunctive norms (HWIN); (3) perceived handwashing behaviour publicness (HWP); and (4) perceived handwashing outcome expectations (HWOE). DESIGN: Scale items were developed based on previous work and pilot tested in an iterative process. Content experts and members of the study team assessed the face validity of the items. The psychometric properties of the scales were assessed in a cross-sectional study. SETTING: The study was conducted in communal housing compounds in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 201 adult residents (≥16 years old) from 60 housing compounds completed the final questionnaire. OUTCOME MEASURE: Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the goodness of fit of the global model. We assessed the internal consistency of each scale using Cronbach's alpha (α) and the Spearman-Brown coefficient (ρ). RESULTS: The results of the psychometric tests supported the construct validity of three of the four scales, with no factor identified for the HWOE (α=0.15). The HWDN and HWP scales were internally consistent with correlations of ρ=0.74 and ρ=0.63, respectively. The HWIN scale appeared reliable (α=0.83). CONCLUSION: We were able to design three reliable context-specific handwashing norm-related scales, specific to economically disadvantaged community settings in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, but failed to construct a reliable scale to measure outcome expectations around handwashing. The social desirability of handwashing and the narrow content area of social norms constructs relating to handwashing present significant challenges when designing items to measure such constructs. Future studies attempting to measure handwashing norm-related constructs will need to take this into account when developing such scales, and take care to adapt their scales to their study context.

Type: Article
Title: Measuring social norms related to handwashing: development and psychometric testing of measurement scales in a low-income urban setting in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048929
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048929
Language: English
Additional information: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Keywords: Hand disinfection, Psychometrics, Social norms, community child health, epidemiology, preventive medicine, public health, Adolescent, Adult, Cote d'Ivoire, Cross-Sectional Studies, Hand Disinfection, Humans, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results, Social Norms, Surveys and Questionnaires
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10147458
Downloads since deposit
24Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item