scholarly journals Development and validation of an instrument to measure physician awareness of bioethics and medical law in Oman

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed S. Al-Busaidi ◽  
Anuradha Ganesh ◽  
Samir Al-Adawi ◽  
Yahya M. Al-Farsi ◽  
Maryam K. Al-Rawahi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background A different ethos with respect to the perception of medical ethics prevails in societies in transition such as those in the Arabian Peninsula, which makes it difficult to apply international principles of bioethics in medical practice. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically test an instrument that measures physicians’ awareness of bioethics and medical law and their attitudes towards the practice of medical ethics. Additionally, it examined physician correlates influencing the awareness of bioethics. Methods Following a rigorous review of relevant literature by a panel of experts, a 13-item instrument, the Omani physicians’ bioethics and medical law awareness (OBMLA) questionnaire was developed with the aim of assessing physicians’ awareness of bioethics and medical law. The study tool’s construct validity and internal consistency reliability were examined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Cronbach’s alpha. In a cross-sectional study, the questionnaire was distributed among a random sample of 200 physicians at a tertiary hospital in Muscat, Oman. Participant characteristics that may influence awareness of bioethics and medical law were explored. Results The EFA of the OBMLA questionnaire resulted in three well-loading factors: (1) Physicians’ bioethics practice subscale (2) incentive related bioethics subscale and (3) medical law awareness subscale. Internal consistency reliability ranged between Cronbach’s α: 0.73–0.8. Of the total 200 participants, 52% reported that teaching medical ethics during medical school was inadequate. The overall mean (standard deviation, SD) of the bioethics awareness score and Omani medical law awareness were 27.6 (3.5) and 10.1 (2.1) respectively. The majority of physicians (73%) reported that they frequently encountered ethical dilemmas in their practice and 24.5% endorsed the view that unethical decisions tended to occur in their practice. Conclusion The study provides an insight into the practice of bioethics, and the awareness of bioethics and medical law among physicians in a teaching hospital in Oman. The OBMLA questionnaire appears to be a valid and reliable tool to assess a physician’s awareness of bioethics and medical law. In this preliminary study, it appears that participants have suboptimal scores on the indices which measure practice and awareness of bioethics and medical law.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed S. Al-Busaidi ◽  
Anuradha Ganesh ◽  
Samir Al-Adawi ◽  
Yahya M. Al-Farsi ◽  
Maryam K. Al-Rawahi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background A different ethos with respect to perception of medical ethics prevails in societies in transition such as those in the Arabian Peninsula, which make it difficult to apply international principles of bioethics in medical practice. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically test an instrument that measures physicians’ awareness of bioethics and medical law and their attitudes towards the practice of medical ethics. Additionally, it examined physician correlates influencing awareness of bioethics.Methods Following a rigorous review of relevant literature by a panel of experts, a 13-items instrument, the Omani physicians’ bioethics and medical law awareness (OBMLA) questionnaire, was developed with the aim of assessing physicians’ awareness of bioethics and medical law. The study tool’s construct validity and internal consistency reliability were examined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Cronbach's alpha. In a cross-sectional study, the questionnaire was distributed among a random sample of 200 physicians at a tertiary hospital in Muscat, Oman. Participant characteristics that may influence awareness of bioethics and medical law were explored.Results EFA of the OBMLA questionnaire resulted in three well-loading factors: (i) Physicians’ bioethics practice subscale (ii) incentive related bioethics subscale and (iii) medical law awareness subscale. Internal consistency reliability ranged between Cronbach’s α: 0.73-0.8. Of total 200 participants, 52% reported that teaching medical ethics during medical school was inadequate. The overall mean (standard deviation, SD) of bioethics awareness score and Omani medical law awareness were 27.6 (3.5) and 10.1 (2.1) respectively. Majority of physicians (73%) reported that they frequently encountered ethical dilemmas in their practice and 24.5% endorsed the view that unethical decisions tended to occur in their practice.Conclusion The study provides insight into practice of bioethics, and awareness of bioethics and medical law among physicians in a teaching hospital in Oman. The OBMLA questionnaire appears to be a valid and reliable tool to assess physician awareness of bioethics and medical law. In this preliminary study, it appears that participants have suboptimal scores of indices measuring practice and awareness of bioethics and medical law.


2019 ◽  
Vol 185 (24) ◽  
pp. 757-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Stadig ◽  
B Duncan X Lascelles ◽  
Gorel Nyman ◽  
Anna Bergh

BackgroundFeline osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of long-standing pain and physical dysfunction. Performing a physical examination of a cat is often challenging. There is a need for disease-specific questionnaires or the so-called clinical metrology instruments (CMIs) to facilitate diagnosis and evaluation of treatment of feline OA. The CMI provides the owners an assessment of the cat’s behavioural and lifestyle changes in the home environment. The purpose of the study was to evaluate readability, internal consistency, reliability and discriminatory ability of four CMIs.MethodsThis is a prospective, cross-sectional study with 142 client-owned cats. Feline OA was diagnosed based on medical history, orthopaedic examination and radiography.ResultsThe results indicate that all four instruments have sound readability, internal consistency, are reliable over time and have good discriminatory ability. Preliminary cut-off values with optimal sensitivity and specificity were suggested for each instrument. The osteoarthritic cats showed significant changes in behavioural response to pain during orthopaedic examination, compared with sound cats.ConclusionThe results indicate that all four questionnaires make an important contribution in a clinical setting, and that the cat’s behavioural response to pain during physical examination should be a parameter to take into account as a possible indication of chronic pain.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuya Aoki ◽  
Yosuke Yamamoto ◽  
Tomoaki Nakata

Objectives. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a well-established and internationally recognized scale for measuring patient experience with hospital inpatient care. This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the HCAHPS and to examine its structural validity, criterion-related validity, and internal consistency reliability. Design. Multicenter cross-sectional study. Setting. A total of 48 hospitals in Japan. Participants. Patients aged ≥ 16 years who were discharged from the participating hospitals. Results. We translated the HCAHPS into Japanese according to the guidelines. Psychometric properties were examined using data from 6,522 patients. A confirmatory factor analysis showed excellent goodness of fit of the same factor structure as that of the original HCAHPS, with the following composites: communication with nurses, communication with doctors, responsiveness of hospital staff, hospital environment, communication about medicines, and discharge information. All hospital-level Pearson correlation coefficients between the Japanese HCAHPS composites and overall hospital rating exceeded the criteria. Results of inter-item correlations indicated adequate internal consistency reliability. Conclusions. We developed the Japanese HCAHPS, and evaluated its structural validity, criterion-related validity, and internal consistency reliability. This scale could be used for quality improvement based on the assessment of patient experience with hospital care and for health services research in Japan.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Sharif Nia ◽  
Pardis Rahmatpour ◽  
Erika Sivarajan Froelicher ◽  
Saeed Pahlevan Sharif ◽  
Omolhoda Kaveh ◽  
...  

Background: Several studies indicate a high prevalence of depression around the world during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a valid instrument to capture the depression of an individual in this situation is both important and timely. The present study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) among the public during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran.Method: This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted in the Iranian population (n = 600) from April to July 2020. A two-part online form was used: sociodemographic characteristics and depression items (CES-D). The construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the scale were evaluated.Result: The results of the exploratory factor analysis illustrated two factors with 43.35% of the total variance of the depression were explained. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that this model fits well. Internal consistency reliability was evaluated, and it was acceptable.Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that, in the Iranian sample, this depression scale yielded two factors (somatic and positive affects) solutions with suitable psychometric properties.


Author(s):  
Israel Casado-Hernández ◽  
Ricardo Becerro-de-Bengoa-Vallejo ◽  
Marta Elena Losa-Iglesias ◽  
Alfredo Soriano-Medrano ◽  
Ángel Morales-Ponce ◽  
...  

Objectives: Our primary aim was to develop a transcultural adaptation of a cycling questionnaire using the Borg CR-10 scale as a tool to describe the discomfort among motorcyclists during the riding process in two trial sessions. Design: A transcultural adaptation and descriptive cross-sectional study. Settings: Jarama motorcycling circuit (Madrid, Spain). Participants: The participants were riders recorded across in a final motorcycling race. Interventions: The study design is based in two tools, the adapted Motorcyclist Questionnaire (MQ-21) with 21 items and Borg CR10 Scale® was used to determine discomfort level during motorcycling performance. The translation procedure, reliability, and reproducibility were performed. Results: All items showed an almost perfect intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (ICC = 0.909–1.00), except for item 9 (ICC = 0.881). Almost perfect internal consistency was shown for the total score (Cronbach α = 0.899). No systematic differences existed among test and retest in all items (p > 0.05) according to Bland–Altman plots. Respondents experienced slight discomfort on their body parts during the test-retest 1 h riding process. Foot discomfort was scored as 1.20, being the eighth of the 12 studied body parts. Conclusions: Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the MQ-21 questionnaire were excellent and this questionnaire may be recommended to be used in motorcycling sports and clinical settings to evaluate the discomfort.


Author(s):  
Cecilia Ferrer Soler ◽  
Clémence Cuvelier ◽  
Mélany Hars ◽  
François R. Herrmann ◽  
Adrienne Charpiot ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Fear of falling is highly prevalent in older adults and associated with numerous negative health events. The main objective of this study was to validate a scale to assess fear of falling, based on performance in real situation (Perform-FES), in a hospitalized geriatric population. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 55 patients (mean age: 85.3 years; 58% women) hospitalized in a geriatric hospital in Geneva (Switzerland) were enrolled. The Perform-FES scale was administered to all patients in conjunction with four other fear of falling scales. We determined the floor and ceiling effects, internal consistency, reliability, construct validity, and discriminative power of the Perform-FES scale. Results The Perform-FES scale did not demonstrate any significant floor or ceiling effect. It had a good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.78) and an excellent reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.94). Regarding convergent validity, good correlations were shown between the score obtained on the Perform-FES scale and those obtained on other fear of falling scales. Also, the Perform-FES scale was able to discriminate patients with severe functional impairments (area under the ROC curve = 0.81) and had significantly better discriminating performance than other fear of falling scales. Conclusion Findings suggest that the Perform-FES scale has good psychometric properties and may be a relevant tool to assess fear of falling in a geriatric hospitalized population. Future research should focus in particular on assessing the sensitivity to change and the predictive value of this scale in longitudinal studies, and its validity in other populations.


Author(s):  
Myung-Jin Jung ◽  
Young-Sook Roh

This study aimed to investigate the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Korean version of the Nurses’ Patient Education Questionnaire. An accurate assessment of nurses’ perceived patient education competency is required, and these needs assessment results can provide the evidence for designing a continuing education to empower and equip nurses with optimal competency for patient education. A cross-sectional study was used to which a convenience sample of 262 hemodialysis unit nurses in the Republic of Korea. In the exploratory factor analysis, the questionnaire consisted of 26 items belonging to seven factors: (1) nurse belief and knowledge; (2) documentation of patient education activities; (3) collegial teamwork; (4) educational environment; (5) interdisciplinary cooperation; (6) education foundation; and (7) health care organization, all of which accounted for 70.2% of the variance. The internal consistency reliability was 0.91 for the overall scale and each factor at 0.70 to 0.77. The questionnaire provides a valid and reliable instrument to assess nurses’ patient education competency.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003435522110142
Author(s):  
Deniz Aydemir-Döke ◽  
James T. Herbert

Microaggressions are daily insults to minority individuals such as people with disabilities (PWD) that communicate messages of exclusion, inferiority, and abnormality. In this study, we developed a new scale, the Ableist Microaggressions Impact Questionnaire (AMIQ), which assesses ableist microaggression experiences of PWD. Data from 245 PWD were collected using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. An exploratory factor analysis of the 25-item AMIQ revealed a three-factor structure with internal consistency reliability ranging between .87 and .92. As a more economical and psychometrically sound instrument assessing microaggression impact as it pertains to disability, the AMIQ offers promise for rehabilitation counselor research and practice.


2021 ◽  
pp. 875647932110210
Author(s):  
Idigo Felicitas Ugochinyere ◽  
Nwankwo Sylvia Chiamaka ◽  
Abonyi Everistus Obinna ◽  
Anakwue Angel-Mary Chukwunyelu ◽  
Agbo Julius Amechi

Objective: Renal volume (RV) assessment during obstetric sonography is rarely considered in our locality. Understanding the changes in RV in both normotensive pregnant (NP) and pregnancy-induced hypertensive (PIH) women is important in making correct diagnosis regarding pregnancy outcome. This study is aimed at determining the RV in NP and PIH women and correlating RV with fetal gestational age (FGA), body mass index (BMI), and parity in NP women. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 450 patients recruited at a Tertiary Hospital. A pilot study was done to determine the interobserver variability in RV measurement. RV was calculated using the following formula: L × W × AP × 0.523. Parity, BMI, and blood pressure were documented, while FGA was calculated as an average of FGAs obtained from the measurements of fetal biometric parameters. Results: Mean RV of PIH women was significantly higher than that of NP women ( P < .05). RV shows a positive significant relationship with BMI and FGA, while it shows a negative relationship with parity in NP ( P < .05). Conclusion: Reference range values of RV were generated for clinical use in our locality, while there is statistically significant difference between RV in NP and PIH women.


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