Evaluation of a scale to assess physician-patient relations

Background: Beneficence, respecting autonomy of patients to make their own decisions, is crucial for good physician-patient relations (PPR), a leading objective in health care. Aim: To validate a previously designed scale to assess PPR in Chile. Material and Methods: A scale with 55 questions grouped in six dimensions, was applied to a convenience sample of 146 individuals, composed by physicians, patients and medical students, at the school of medicine from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC). Internal consistency (Alpha of Cronbach) of answers was analyzed. The existence of correlations between answers that may justify the application of a factorial analysis was assessed using Bartlett and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) tests. Factorial analysis was used to identify specific dimensions and reduce the number of questions. Results: Factorial analysis performed in 125 subjects with complete answers allowed to reduce the scale to 28 questions, grouped in six dimensions. Cronbach alpha value was 0.78. Bartlett test was highly significant (p <0.0001), and KMO score was 0.784, considered as meritorious. Conclusions: The validated scale will allow the performance of new studies among physicians and patients, to assess and compare their respective scores. (Rev Med Chile 2012; 140: 176-185).