Psychometric evaluation of a multi-dimensional measure of satisfaction with behavioral interventions

Treatment satisfaction is recognized as an essential aspect in the evaluation of an intervention's effectiveness, but there is no measure that provides for its comprehensive assessment with regard to behavioral interventions. Informed by a conceptualization generated from a literature review, we developed a measure that covers several domains of satisfaction with behavioral interventions. In this paper, we briefly review its conceptualization and describe the Multi-Dimensional Treatment Satisfaction Measure (MDTSM) subscales. Satisfaction refers to the appraisal of the treatment's process and outcome attributes. The MDTSM has 11 subscales assessing treatment process and outcome attributes: treatment components' suitability and utility, attitude toward treatment, desire for continued treatment use, therapist competence and interpersonal style, format and dose, perceived benefits of the health problem and everyday functioning, discomfort, and attribution of outcomes to treatment. The MDTSM was completed by persons (N = 213) in the intervention group in a large trial of a multi-component behavioral intervention for insomnia within 1 week following treatment completion. The MDTSM's subscales demonstrated internal consistency reliability (alpha: .65 - .93) and validity (correlated with self-reported adherence and perceived insomnia severity at post-test). The MDTSM subscales can be used to assess satisfaction with behavioral interventions and point to aspects of treatments that are viewed favorably or unfavorably.