Development and psychometric assessment of the household earthquake preparedness questionnaire: an exploratory sequential mixed-methods study

Earthquakes may lead to fatalities and property loss often due to lack of preparedness among individuals. This study aimed to develop and assess the psychometric properies of a Household Preparedness for Earthquake Hazards Questionnaire (HPE-Q). This study utilized a mixed-methods approach comprising of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative phase concentrated on item generation through semi-structured interviews conducted with Iranian households selected via purposive sampling, alongside a systematic literature review to develop a comprehensive item pool for evaluating household preparedness for earthquake hazards. The quantitative phase focused on item reduction and the assessment of the face, content, and construct validity. To evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated. The initial item pool comprised 88 potential items. Face validity, content validity, and item analysis evaluation was performed and the number of items was reduced to 61. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) further pruned the instrument by eliminating 24 items and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) mandated the removal of 1 item resulting in a finalized 36-item HPE-Q anchored by 7 main factors: knowledge, self-efficacy, social support, social participation, collective efficacy, protective motivation and behavioral intention. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.92 and Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) of the total score was 0.93. Household preparedness for earthquakes is shaped by numerous factors that can either facilitate or impede preparedness and these factors may differ across communities and households. This questionnaire can help identify key aspects of households’ preparedness for earthquakes.