Assessing knowledge of schizophrenia: development and psychometric properties of a brief, multiple-choice knowledge test for use across various samples.

Psychosocial research on schizophrenia would benefit from reliable and valid measures of knowledge about schizophrenia. Although a variety of instruments have been developed to assess the effects of specific family psychoeducational programs, little research has been conducted on the psychometric properties of scales measuring knowledge about schizophrenia. This study assessed reliability and validity of a brief, easily administered, multiple-choice knowledge test completed by 441 participants from several samples: 144 lay community members, 77 family members of inpatients with schizophrenia, 170 police officers involved in a training program on mental illnesses, and 50 mental health professionals. After item analysis, good internal consistency reliability and construct validity were demonstrated for an 18-item version of this test. The findings demonstrate that knowledge about schizophrenia - a construct with potentially broad applicability in psychosocially oriented schizophrenia research - can be assessed with brief, self-administered, multiple-choice knowledge tests.