A Psychometric Study of the Arabic Version of the “Searching for Hardships and Obstacles to Shots (SHOT)” Instrument for Use in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Vaccines are considered one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century and the most cost-effective public health intervention to overcome diseases and disease-associated mortality. This study translated the “Searching for Hardships and Obstacles to Shots” (SHOT) instrument from English to Arabic and conducted a psychometric evaluation of the Arabic version to measure parental barriers to childhood immunization. The cross-sectional study utilized multistage cluster random sampling to recruit parents visiting 70 primary health centers in Jizan. Scale translation and cultural adaptation were used to translate the SHOT survey into Arabic. The survey revealed that the best-factor model was a one-factor solution for “barriers to child immunization.” The first principal component explained the highest variance (56.22%), and subsequent components explained decreasing percentages of variance. The third principal component explained the decreased variance (4.61%), and subsequent components explained the decreasing percentages of variance. The overall reliability (determined by Cronbach’s alpha) was 0.96. The strong internal consistency of the Arabic version of the SHOT instrument (as indicated by the high Cronbach’s alpha coefficients) indicates that researchers and practitioners can confidently use this scale to measure parents’ attitudes toward and perceptions of vaccinations. Furthermore, the study results will help policymakers develop programs or interventional initiatives to overcome these barriers.