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4.6 VALIDITY Al'o'DRELIABILITY
The instrwnents need to be adequately tested for their reliability and validity to ensure that
the instrument is one that results in measures that are relevant, accurate,_ unbiased, sensitive
and efficient After the instrwnent was developed, it was tested for its validity and reliability
before the actual data collection was done.
4.6.1 CONTENT VALIDITY
This refers to how accurately the questions tend to elicit the information sought The
questionnaires were sent to different experts in the field under study to review and analyze all
items, to see ifthey adequately represent the content universe. The instrument was given to
different members ofthe multidisciplinary team including the orthopedic surgeon, orthopedic
nurse, specialist, physiotherapist, occupation therapist and social workers from local higher
education institutions. These members were requested to examine the instrument and to add
items which they deemed necessary and to delete those deemed irrelevant These members
and supervisors agreed that the instrument contained questions pertaining to community­
based rehabilitation. The instrument was also formulated from an extensive literature review.
4.6.2 FACE VALIDITY
Face validity indicated whether the instrument appeared to be measuring what it purposed to
measure. It was found to be present because all questions in the instrument appeared to focus
on the selected topic ofcommunity based rehabilitation ofthe amputees.
4.6.3 EXTERNAL VALIDITY
In this study external validity was ensured because the researcher provided a detailed
description so that someone other than the researcher could determine whether the findings of
the study were applicable in other settings or contexts where the method of data collection
was precisely and thoroughly reported (Brink, 1996:125).
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