People’s attitudes towards the use of quarantine in the Covid‐19 pandemic in Iran: Validity and reliability study

Abstract

Background The purpose of this study was first to translate (into Persian) and evaluate the psychometric properties of the attitudes towards the use of quarantine questionnaires (PAQ). Methods This methodological study was conducted on 1000 adults’ participants in Iran, using convenience sampling. Based on permission from the developer of the scale, it was back‐translated. Content validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were tested. Reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated with test–retest and internal consistency. Results The adequacy of the sample was acceptable because of the results of the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test (0.788), and Bartlett’s test of sphericity revealed statistically significant results ( P < .001). Exploratory factor analysis showed the 4‐factor structure of the instrument. The reliability of the scale was 0.77 based on internal consistency. Also, the intra‐class reliability of the scale was 0.9. The attitude of the maximum number of respondents towards quarantine is positive and they support a quarantine in the pandemic of COVID‐19 in Iran. Conclusions Current study showed that the Persian version of attitudes towards the use of quarantine (PAQ) in the Iranian population including 17 items could be used as a valid and reliable instrument.