An Introduction to Simulating Cronbach’s Alpha Values with The Help of SimAlpha© Algorithm

Abstract

A questionnaire is a structured tool used in health research to systematically collect data on perceptions, behaviors and health outcomes. It serves as a fundamental tool for recording patient-reported outcomes, evaluating treatment effectiveness and monitoring public health trends. Questionnaires can be administered in a variety of formats, including paper, digital, or interactive systems and must be carefully designed to ensure reliability, validity and minimal bias. SimAlpha algorithm was designed in 2023 from Basispap to simulate Cronbach's Alpha and uses
R code to do so. It has been used professionally on several occasions where a simulated study on Cronbach's Alpha was needed. Additionally, it can provide prefixed Likert scale mean values prior to the study as well as number of participants on demand. It has been a useful tool to reduce time and money needs. In this paper a brief presentation of the algorithm is given as well as potential and weaknesses. The results of the simulation show improved behavior for large number of simulated participants and replications (N > 100,000) but the number of simulated questions does remain satisfactory even in the case of small numbers such as 10 questions. The flexibility of the algorithm needs to be improved for alpha values lower than 0.7. This means that an unexperienced user might find it difficult to perform simulations for requested alpha values lower than 0.7 although a more experienced user can easily adjust requested alpha in order to obtain the exact needed value.