Development of a knowledge test in the science of prevention of lung diseases

We developed a 50-item multiple choice test to assess knowledge of preventive pulmonary medicine. We derived the content of test items from a comprehensive preventive pulmonary curriculum, which we developed. The test was administered to 167 medical students, residents, and practicing physicians to establish its psychometric properties and to determine if the test scores discriminated between different levels of training. Using this sample, the reliability of the test was 0.86, and the test significantly differentiated between levels of training in pulmonary medicine. We are using this multiple choice test to assess changes in knowledge of second-year medical students and of fourth-year medical students completing a pulmonary medicine elective rotation.