Validation of the Indonesian version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire: A Rasch analysis

Safety climate, which provides a snapshot of safety culture, is rarely measured in Indonesian healthcare organisations because there are no validated surveys that can be administered in its native language, Bahasa Indonesia. The objectives of this study were to translate and linguistically adapt the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire into Bahasa Indonesia, and investigate the internal construct validity and reliability of the translated survey.

The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire was translated into Indonesian language through forward and backward translation. The internal construct validity and reliability of the translated survey was assessed using Rasch analysis which examines overall model fit, unidimensionality, response format, targeting, internal consistency reliability and item bias.

A total of 279 nurses (response rate 82%) completed the Indonesian version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire. Most respondents were Division 2 registered nurses (n = 209; 75%), female (n = 174; 62%), and aged less than 30 years (n = 187; 67%). All six domains of the Indonesian version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire demonstrated unidimensionality (t-test less than 0.05 threshold value). However, suboptimal targeting (ceiling effect) was observed in all domains, and had at least one misfitting item (item fit residual beyond ±2.5) Item bias was also evident in most domains.

This study has translated and validated an Indonesian version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire for the first time. Whilst there was general support to sum items to obtain domain scores, further work is required to refine the response options as well as the wording and number of items in this survey to improve its overall measurement properties.