A new validated international questionnaire on health professionals' knowledge of hypertension diagnosis

Arterial hypertension is the main factor in attributable mortality. It is therefore considered one of the most important public health problems. Health professionals require special training and skills to make a diagnosis. No studies have been found in the literature search that use a validated instrument (questionnaire) to assess health professionals' theoretical and practical knowledge in diagnosing hypertension or measuring blood pressure.

To design and validate an instrument for gauging health professionals' theoretical knowledge in measuring blood pressure for the initial diagnosis of hypertension.

Design, development, and validation of a questionnaire in three languages (English, Spanish, and Catalan) to assess knowledge based on the Rasch-item response theory model.

A questionnaire in three languages was constructed and validated. It consisted of 23 questions on the theoretical knowledge of the initial diagnosis of hypertension and was called the ARC questionnaire. It met all the Rasch-IRT model criteria: item- and person-fit measurement, unidimensionality, local independence, invariance, targeting, and reliability.

The ARC questionnaire is a validated tool that enables objective and uniform analyses of knowledge in the initial diagnosis of hypertension among medical and nursing professionals, comparing them over time. It allows for established strategies to be developed to enhance this knowledge.