Recently, a patient-reported experience measure (PREM) was developed in Slovenia to assess patients' experiences with outpatient specialist healthcare clinics. The aim of this study was to evaluate ...the psychometric properties (including factor structure, reliability, convergent validity, and response distribution) of the questionnaire.
The sample consisted of 8,406 adult participants treated in 171 specialist clinics from different medical fields. Participants voluntarily and anonymously responded to either the paper or online survey.
Descriptive statistics show meaningful response patterns with a general tendency towards favourable assessments. The psychometric analyses of the scales evaluating doctor's and nurses' work, respectively, generally showed a good fit of the unidimensional factor model as well as the Rasch model, high factor loadings and very good to satisfactory reliability. The Rasch scaling showed that these scales were most informative for patients with relatively unfavourable experience ratings.
The results are similar to those found in previous evaluations of PREMs in other countries. Given its good psychometric properties, the Slovenian PREM can be recommended for healthcare evaluations in Slovenia and as a model for the development of similar PREMs in other countries.
ABSTRACT Introduction There has been no valid and reliable instrument available to measure the impact of oral health on the quality of life of Slovenian preschool children. The main aim of this study ...was to develop and evaluate the validity and reliability of the first Slovenian instrument assessing Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) preschool children: the ECOHIS-SVN. Methods The ECOHIS-SVN was developed using forward-backward translations and with the participation of children aged under six and their parents. The children’s teeth were examined, and parents were asked to complete questionnaires, including the ECOHIS-SVN. The internal consistency of ECOHIS-SVN was evaluated through the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha (α), test-retest reliability with an intra-class-correlation coefficient (ICC), convergent validity with Spearman’s rank correlation (r) and criterion validity with the Mann-Whitney test. The association between the ECOHIS-SVN score and parents’ age, educational level, self-reported oral health and OHIP-SVN14 was estimated using multiple linear regression. Results In the study, 255 children participated, with a mean age of 4.8 years (±0.8). The ECOHIS-SVN questionnaire was completed by the parents of all 255 children and re-filled by 71 parents. The results of the total ECOHIS-SVN scale include α=0.85, ICC=0.85, and r=0.6-0.75. A statistically significant association was found between the ECOHIS-SVN and parents’ age and between the ECOHIS-SVN and parents’ OHIP-SVN14 in the whole group and in the subgroup of children with no teeth affected by cavitated caries (dmft=0) (p=0.025, p=0.028), respectively. Conclusion ECOHIS-SVN enables further studies to assess the OHRQoL of preschool children in the Slovenian-speaking population.
To describe the cross-cultural adaptation of the Quality of Diagnoses, Interventions and Outcomes (Q-DIO) Instrument into the Slovene language.
Based on general international guidelines, a six-step ...process of localization to translate and adjust the instrument from English into the Slovene language was used. Content validity was quantified based on an agreement of eight experts. The instrument was tested using a sample of 140 nursing documentations from two Slovenian tertiary hospitals.
26 of 29 items showed an excellent content validity index ranging from 0.857 to 1.000, and a modified kappa index above 0.856. The content validity indexes of the three remaining items adjusted based on experts' comments were subsequently estimated at 1.000. Construct validity was significantly different between the two groups of documentations. The Cronbach coefficient for the whole questionnaire was 0.860. Cronbach's alpha if item deleted reamins above 0.80 for all items. The criteria for the difficulty grades of items and discrimination validity were acceptably met for more than 75% of items.
Based on the results of the study, it may be concluded that Q-DIO is a reliable instrument for measuring the quality of nursing documentation. The deviations in the results of some items are due to poor nursing documentation quality, and indicate that nursing classifications have not yet been fully implemented into practice in the study setting. Additional testing of the instrument is recommended.
The aim of this study was to translate the Cardiac Depression Scale into the Slovenian language and test its validity and reliability on Slovenian patients with heart disease.
A total of 272 patients ...with heart disease who underwent elective coronary angiography at Celje General Hospital participated in this study. We used the Slovenian Cardiac Depression Scale (S-CDS), the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-20 (CES-D) to collect data. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity were performed.
Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was 0.92 and the test-retest reliability was 0.71. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed six factors, accounting for 61% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a two- and one-factor solution had acceptable goodness-of-fit measures. However, we kept a more parsimonious one-factor method, given a high correlation between the two factors and the theoretical background in previous studies. Concurrent validation against the CES-D and the STAI-S showed moderate to strong correlations.
The S-CDS is a reliable and valid instrument for screening for depression in Slovenian patients with heart disease.
The aim was to adapt the Croatian and the Serbian versions of the Oral Health Impact Profile for the edentulous population (OHIP-EDENT-CRO and OHIP-EDENT-SRB).
The translation and cross-cultural ...adaptation were carried out in accordance with accepted international standards. A total of 95 and 177 removable denture wearers were recruited in Croatia and Serbia respectively. The reliability was evaluated by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient and by test-retest (30 participants in each country). The concurrent validity was determined by calculating the Spearman's rank coefficient between the OHIP-EDENT summary scores and one question related to removable denture satisfaction. Construct validity was determined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Responsiveness was determined by comparison of the OHIP-EDENT summary scores before and after dental implant placement to support mandibular overdentures (23 patients in Croatia, 21 in Serbia).
Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.92 in Croatia and 0.87 in Serbia. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.98 in Croatia and 0.94 in Serbia. In Croatia the Spearman's correlation coefficient was -0.71 (p<0.001) and in Serbia -0.74 (p<0.001). Both confirmed concurrent validity. Construct validity was tested by EFA, which extracted four factors in each country, accounting for 66.59% of the variance in Croatia and 59.33% in Serbia. Responsiveness was confirmed in both countries by a significant OHIP-EDENT summary score reduction and a high standardised effect size (3.9 in Croatia, 1.53 in Serbia).
The results prove that both instruments, the OHIP-EDENT-CRO and the OHIP-EDENT-SRB, have very good psychometric properties for assessing OHRQoL in the edentulous population.
Professional drivers' knowledge about driving-impairing medications is not satisfactory. The aim of this study was to develop and test the reliability and validity of the questionnaires designed to ...measure the knowledge and attitude of professional drivers about the influence of various medications on driving ability.
The questionnaires for assessing professional driver's knowledge (performance-based) and attitudes about influence of various medications on driving abilities were developed by creating the item pool, testing reliability and validity, and factor analysis. The study was conducted as a multicenter, cross-sectional study in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study population consisted of professional drivers, who filled out both questionnaires in three time intervals.
Both questionnaires showed great internal consistency and temporal stability. Cronbach's Alpha for the first questionnaire was 0.984 and for the second it was 0.944. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test for the first questionnaire confirmed sampling adequacy with its value of 0.964 and for the second questionnaire it was 0.933. Exploratory factor analysis of the questionnaire showed that three factors were revealed after rotation for the first questionnaire and they explained 78.0% of variance. Both questionnaires showed high degree of correlation between scores after the first and repeated administration, Spearman's rho coefficient of correlation for was 0.962 and 0.980.
Based on the results of this study, we believe that both questionnaires are useful tools for testing professional drivers' knowledge and attitudes about the influence of medications on driving ability.
To validate the Slovenian version (SOC-13-SVN) of Sense of Coherence 13-item instrument (SOC-13) in Slovenian multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.
A consecutive 134 Slovenian MS patients were enrolled ...in a cross-sectional study in 2013. The reliability of the SOC-13-SVN was assessed for internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α), dimensionality by the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and criterion validity by Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between SOC-13-SVN global score and MSQOL-54 composite scores - Mental Health Composite score (MHC) and Physical Health Composite score (PHC).
For the SOC-13-SVN instrument as a whole, internal consistency was high (α
=0.88) while it was low for three subscales (α
=0.79; α
=0.66; α
=0.69). The results of the CFA confirmed a three-factor structure with good fit (RMSEA=0.059, CFI=0.953, SRMR=0.065), however, the correlations between the factors were very high (r
=0.938; r
=0.811; r
=0.930). The criterion validity analysis showed a moderate positive strength of relationship between SOC-13-SVN global score and both MSQOL-54 composite scores (MHC: r=0.597, p<0.001; PHC: r=0.437, p<0.001).
Analysis of some psychometric properties confirmed that this instrument is a reliable and valid tool for use in Slovenian MS patients. Despite the three-dimensional structure of the instrument, the use of the global summary score is encouraged due to the low reliability of the subscale scores and high correlations between them.