Swedish language Person-centred Climate Questionnaire - patient version: construction and psychometric evaluation

Abstract

Aim: This paper is a report of a study to construct and evaluate psychometric properties of the Swedish language patient version Person-centred Climate Questionnaire.

Background: Person-centred care is widely described as a preferred model of care as it uses the individual person's perspective as point of departure. However, the concept is elusive and lacks definition and a means of measurement.

Method: A preliminary item pool generated from qualitative studies was distributed to a sample of hospital patients (n = 544) and subjected to item analysis and reduction using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The psychometrical properties of the final questionnaire were evaluated using statistical estimates of validity and reliability.

Results: The final 17-item questionnaire consists of three factors explaining 65.1% of the total variance in data, and shows satisfactory goodness-of-fit in confirmative factor analyses. The factors were labelled safety, everydayness and hospitality. Content and construct validity was estimated as satisfactory by Delphi assessment, factor and item analysis. Cronbach's alpha was satisfactory for the total scale (0.93), and also for the three subscales: safety 0.94, everydayness 0.82 and generosity 0.64.

Conclusion: The Person-centred Climate Questionnaire is a valid and reliable contribution for assessing to what extent the climate of hospital environments is person-centred. The instrument enables descriptions and comparisons of environments, exploration of correlates between person-centredness and patient outcomes and/or measure results of various interventions.