PHYSICIANS OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES ATTITUDE SCALE DEVELOPMENT

Background and Purpose: Occupational diseases (ODs) and work-related diseases are important issues that affect work life and involve economic, medical, social, and ethical dimensions. The aim of this study was to develop a scale to measure the attitudes of physicians working or likely to work on the diagnosis and notification of ODs toward occupational health and OD. Methods: This study was planned as a scale development study. During the scale development process, the item pool was determined using the three-round Delphi method, and explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed using the pilot study data. A pilot study was conducted for the validity of the scale (n = 142). Data were collected again for confirmatory factor analysis of the scale (n = 216) Results: The total explained variance of the scale was calculated as 67.80%. The KMO value of the scale was calculated as 0.87, In the exploratory factor analysis, the scale was divided into four dimensions. The scale was transformed into a 19-item scale comprising four subdimensions: "self-efficacy", "readiness", "awareness" and "contribution". While evaluating the scale items, the VIF value of all items was below 5 and the correlation between the items was min:0,299, max: 0,803. All the scale items had a t-value of >1.96. The reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as 0.943 according to the classical test theory and generalizability theory. Conclusion: The "Attitude Scale toward Occupational Health and Occupational Diseases for Physicians," developed in this study, is a valid and reliable tool to determine the attitude of physicians toward occupational health and ODs.