Background: Valid instruments that can reliably assess maternal breastfeeding knowledge in Arabic-speaking populations are nonexistent. The availability of such an instrument is essential for investigators working in this field.
Objective: This study aimed to describe the adaptation and validation of the Arabic Breastfeeding Knowledge Questionnaire (BFK-A) from the original 20-item English version.
Methods: A translated version of the 20-item BFK was validated among 417 Lebanese women after pilot testing for clarity, comprehension, length, and cultural appropriateness. Exploratory factor analysis was run to examine dimensionality of the instrument and Kuder-Richardson-20 (KR-20) was used to assess its internal consistency.
Results: The BFK-A is a unidimensional scale with acceptable internal consistency reliability (KR-20 = 0.652) after the exclusion of 4 items. Higher breastfeeding knowledge levels were strongly and statistically significantly associated with higher mean scores for the validated Arabic Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale ( P < .001), thus confirming its construct validity.
Conclusion: The Arabic 16-item BFK-A has an acceptable reliability, similar to the original instrument. Further studies are encouraged to confirm the validity of the 16-item BFK-A among other Arab populations. There is also a need to develop more reliable instruments to use in lactation research in this context.
Keywords: breastfeeding; breastfeeding knowledge; instrument validation.