Osteoporosis Knowledge Assessment Tool - Tamil (OKAT-T) in postmenopausal women: A validity and reliability study

Osteoporosis is a silent disease that is more prevalent among postmenopausal women (PMW) due to hormonal transition. Various toolkits, including the Osteoporosis Knowledge Assessment Tool (OKAT), were available for the knowledge assessment. The Osteoporosis-related knowledge is crucial for preventing osteoporosis, but there is no validated, reliable questionnaire in Tamil to measure this knowledge.

To validate the Tamil version of the OKAT (OKAT-T) and its psychometric properties to measure the knowledge of osteoporosis for use in postmenopausal women.

This cross-sectional study was done in two phases, as translation of OKAT in Tamil and validation of OKAT-T among 430 postmenopausal women in both rural and urban regions. Reliability was examined by the Flesch reading ease (FKRE&G) and McNemar's test, along with difficulty index, item discrimination and item-total correlations, inter-item consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient).

The overall mean age of the 430 PMW was 59.53 ± 9.83 years. The results showed a good and satisfactory face validity and FKRE&G score (55.9). The Cronbach's alpha for the overall scale was calculated as 0.85 and considered to be good and satisfactory. As per the difficulty index, 19 items had a 0.3 to 0.7, implying that the questionnaire was easy to understand and satisfactory. Similarly, a test-retest was assessed, which was statistically significant for only six items out of 26, showing that the tool has stable reliability.

The management of chronic disorders such as osteoporosis has become more challenging for patients especially among PMW and healthcare professionals due to the increasing life expectancy and urbanization. The use of an Osteoporosis Knowledge Assessment tool that has been tailored to people's understanding and developed in the local language can raise awareness levels about osteoporosis, encourage the adoption of osteoprotective strategies, and provide guidance on treatment options.