[Validation of the knowledge and attitudes of health professionals in the Living Will Declaration process].

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the validity and reliability of the knowledge and attitudes of health professionals questionnaire on the Living Will Declaration (LWD) process.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study structured into 3 phases: (i)pilot questionnaire administered with paper to assess losses and adjustment problems; (ii)assessment of the validity and internal reliability, and (iii)assessment of the pre-filtering questionnaire stability (test-retest).

LOCATION: Costa del Sol (Malaga) Health Area. January 2014 to April 2015.

PARTICIPANTS: Healthcare professionals of the Costa del Sol Primary Care District and the Costa del Sol Health Agency. There were 391 (23.6%) responses, and 100 participated in the stability assessment (83 responses).

MAIN MEASUREMENTS: The questionnaire consisted of 2 parts: (i)Knowledge (5 dimensions and 41 items), and (ii)Attitudes (2 dimensions and 17 items).

RESULTS: In the pilot study, none of the items lost over 10%. In the evaluation phase of validity and reliability, the questionnaire was reduced to 41 items (29 of knowledge, and 12 of attitudes). In the stability evaluation phase, all items evaluated met the requirement of a kappa higher than 0.2, or had a percentage of absolute agreement exceeding 75%.

CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaire will identify the status and areas for improvement in the health care setting, and then will allow an improved culture of LWD process in general population.