Developing And Preliminary Validating A New Scale To Evaluate Primary Care Comprehensiveness in Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: In this study, it was aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale that can evaluate the service comprehensiveness levels of family medicine units in our country. Methods: A new instrument development and validation study was conducted. The study was conducted on 252 family physicians working in Manisa. The study procedure comprised two main steps: item and dimension development (extensive literature review, expert views, a pilot study) and scale validation (content validity, internal consistency, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability test). The primary care comprehensiveness scale consists of 170 items and 6 sub-dimensions (routin risk-groups monitoring,health promotion services, health screening, rehabilitation services and acute and chronic health conditions management). The data obtained from the participants were evaluated using SPSS and AMOS programs. Results: Cronbach alpha coefficient of scale calculated for the internal consistency was 0.810, while the subscales ranged from 0.730 to 0.840. Item-total item correlations ranged from 0.388 to 0.875. After the analysis, 39 items that were determined as problematic were removed from the scale. According to the results of the confirmatory factor analysis, final scale that comprised 98-item and five dimensions’ fit indices results (RMSEA=0,053, CFI=0,889) were within acceptable ranges. Conclusion: It has been determined that the primary care comprehensiveness scale has adequate reliability and validity and can be used to assess comprehensiveness of primary care in Turkey.