Study tool
The study tool (the survey) was developed following an extensive review of the literature. The survey contained close and open-ended questions. The questionnaire was administered in Arabic since Arabic is the official language of patients in Jordan. Several sources were used to generate a pool of questions considered to be relevant to the study objectives. The questions were tabled and reviewed by the research team in order to combine concepts and to remove duplicates if any.
To ensure face validity, the first draft of the questionnaire was evaluated by independent academics who have previous experience in pharmacy practice and education. The items in the questionnaire that were not clear or difficult to comprehend were removed. Feedback and comments provided were considered by the research team and then incorporated where appropriate. Finally, the research team revised the items as necessary to make them concise and to be completed within 10-15 minutes by the researcher during patient’s interview. The questionnaire was then piloted by a group of volunteer patients (n=5) to test the clarity of questions over a 2 weeks period. Refinements and comments were incorporated into the final version of the survey.
The survey incorporated Likert scale questions and consisted of three parts. The first part was designed to collect data on patients’ demographic characteristics including age, gender, weight, exercising, caffeine intake and insurance coverage. The second part was designed to assess patients’ awareness of the management of their condition, adherence, barriers to adherence, faith level and its impact on their adherence. The third part was designed to evaluate patients’ perspective of the role of healthcare professionals, with a focus on the pharmacist role.