A Study of the Validity and Reliability of the Questionnaire Entitled Physicians' Approach to and Disclosure of Medical Errors and the Related Ethical Issues Publisher



Mohammadi M^{1, 3, 7, 8} ; Larijani B² ; Tabatabaei SM^{1, 3} ; Nedjat S^{4, 9} ; Yunesian M^{5, 10} ; Nayeri FS⁶ Show Affiliations
Source: Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Published:2019

Abstract

Medical errors are among the major challenges that threaten patients’ health worldwide. The aim of this study was to design a valid and reliable questionnaire to investigate the status of medical error disclosure by physicians. A preliminary questionnaire was developed based on the extracted results from 37 interviews with specialists. To test the validity of the questionnaire, 20 medical practitioners and medical ethics authorities were asked to evaluate the relevance and clarity of each item. To measure the instrument’s reliability (the intra-class correlation coefficient and Cronbach’s alpha), a test-retest study was conducted on 20 randomly selected physicians twice with a 2-week interval. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software version 20. The overall relevance and clarity of the instrument, with an average approach, were measured at 97.22 and 94.03 percent respectively. The Cronbach’s alpha, which presents the internal consistency was satisfactory (0.70 - 0.79) for various domains of the questionnaire. The range of intra-class correlation coefficients for the items in all domains of the questionnaire was 0.76 to 1.00. Regarding the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, it can be an appropriate instrument in the assessment and monitoring of the status of medical error disclosure by physicians. © 2019 Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved