Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Brief HIV Knowledge Questionnaire

TLDR

The study evaluated the psychometric properties of a brief 18‑item self‑report HIV knowledge questionnaire (HIV‑KQ‑18). A sample of 1,019 low‑income men and women completed 27 items covering the domain of interest to assess the questionnaire. Item analyses retained 18 items with item‑total correlations .24–.57, yielding internal consistency α .75–.89, test‑retest stability rs .76–.94, strong correlations with a longer validated measure rs .93–.97, and sensitivity to intervention‑induced knowledge gains in three clinical trials.

Abstract

This research evaluated the psychometric properties of a brief self-report measure of HIV-related knowledge, the 18-item HIV Knowledge Questionnaire (HIV-KQ-18). Low-income men and women (N = 1,019) responded to 27 items that represented the domain of interest. Item analyses indicated that 18 items, with item-total correlations ranging from .24 to .57, be retained. Additional analyses demonstrated the HIV-KQ-18's internal consistency across samples (αs = .75-.89), test-retest stability across several intervals (rs = .76-.94), and strong associations with a much longer, previously validated measure (rs = .93-.97). Data from three clinical trials indicated that the HIV-KQ-18 detected knowledge gains in treated participants when compared to untreated controls. We conclude that the HIV-KQ-18 is internally consistent, stable, sensitive to the change resulting from intervention, and suitable for use with low-literacy populations.