The Diabetes Continuity of Care Scale: the development and initial evaluation of a questionnaire that measures continuity of care from the patient perspective.

The purpose of the present study was to develop and pilot test a questionnaire to assess continuity of care from the perspective of patients with diabetes. Seven patient and two healthcare-provider focus groups were conducted. These focus groups generated 777 potential items. This number was reduced...

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Published in:Health & Social Care in the Community Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 475 - 488
Main Authors: Dolovich LR, Nair KM, Ciliska DK, Lee HN, Birch S, Gafni A, Hunt DL
Format: questionnaire/scale research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Nov2004
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Nov2004
      vid: 12
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      pub: Wiley-Blackwell
      place: Malden, Massachusetts
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        10.1111/j.1365-2524.2004.00517.x
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        atl: The Diabetes Continuity of Care Scale: the development and initial evaluation of a questionnaire that measures continuity of care from the patient perspective.
      aug:
        au:
          Dolovich LR
          Nair KM
          Ciliska DK
          Lee HN
          Birch S
          Gafni A
          Hunt DL
        affil: Centre for Evaluation of Medicines, 105 Main Street East, Level P1, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 1G6; ldolovic@mcmaster.ca
      sug:
        subj:
          Continuity of Patient Care Evaluation
          Diabetes Mellitus
          Instrument Construction
          Instrument Validation
          Aged
          Audiorecording
          Coefficient alpha
          Confidence Intervals
          Construct Validity
          Content Validity
          Convenience Sample
          Data Analysis Software
          Descriptive Statistics
          Diabetic Patients
          Face Validity
          Factor Analysis
          Female
          Focus Groups
          Funding Source
          Glycated Hemoglobin
          Internal Consistency
          Interview Guides
          Interviews
          Male
          Middle Age
          Ontario
          Purposive Sample
          Questionnaires
          Scales
          T-Tests
          Test-Retest Reliability
          Validation Studies
          Human
          Aged: 65+ years
          Middle Aged: 45-64 years
          Female
          Male
      ab: The purpose of the present study was to develop and pilot test a questionnaire to assess continuity of care from the perspective of patients with diabetes. Seven patient and two healthcare-provider focus groups were conducted. These focus groups generated 777 potential items. This number was reduced to 56 items after item reduction, face validity testing and readability analysis, and to 47 items after a preliminary factor analysis. Readability was assessed as requiring 7-8 years of schooling. Sixty adult patients with diabetes completed the draft Diabetes Continuity of Care Scale (DCCS) at a single point in time to assess the validity of the instrument. Patients completed the draft DCCS again 2 weeks later to assess test-retest reliability. A provisional factor analysis and grouping according to clinical sense yielded five domains: access and getting care, care by doctor, care by other healthcare professionals, communication between healthcare professionals, and self-care. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the whole scale was 0.89. The testretest reliability was r = 0.73. The DCCS total score was moderately correlated with some of the measures used to establish construct validity. The DCCS could differentiate between patients who did and did not achieve specific process and clinical indicators of good diabetes care (e.g. Hba1c tested within 6 months). The development of the DCCS was centred on the patient's perspective and revealed that the patient perspective regarding continuity of care extends beyond the concept of seeing one doctor. Initial testing of this instrument demonstrates that it has promise as a reliable and valid measure in this area.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        questionnaire/scale
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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