The “Patient-centered coordination by a care team” questionnaire achieves satisfactory validity and reliability

ABSTRACT

Increasing prevalence of chronic conditions and multimorbidity challenges health care systems and calls for patient-centered coordination of care. Implementation and evaluation of health policies focusing on the development of patient-centered coordination of care needs valid instruments measuring this dimension of care. The aim of this validation study was to assess the psychometric properties of the French version of the 14-item Patient-Centered Coordination by a Care Team (PCCCT) questionnaire in a primary care setting. PCCCT provides a total score from 0 (worst coordination) to 42 (best coordination). 165 adult patients consulting in primary care with one or more chronic condition(s) completed questionnaires (including PCCCT) at recruitment. After three weeks, participants completed PCCCT again, either by mail (group A) or during a telephone interview (group B). At recruitment, the mean (SD) PCCCT score was 33.3 (7.7). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 2-dimension structure, 8 items relating to patient involvement and 6 items relating to coordination (factors loadings ranging from 0.34 to 0.88). PCCCT score correlated significantly with subscales of Haggerty’s continuity questionnaire, Spearman correlation coefficients (95% confidence interval) ranging from 0.40 (0.22–0.57) to 0.52 (0.38–0.63). Internal consistency was excellent: Cronbach alpha 0.90 (0.79–0.92). Reliability was good, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.68 (0.55–0.78) for test-retest reliability (group A) and of 0.65 (0.46–0.79) for reliability between the self-administered and the interviewer-administered versions of the questionnaire (group B,). The PCCCT questionnaire presents satisfactory validity and reliability; it can be used for the evaluation of health organizations involving team work in primary care.

KEYWORDS:

• Coordination of care
• patient-centered care
• care team
• questionnaire
• validation study

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Community-Based Primary Healthcare Signature Initiative of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as part of the Patient-Centered Innovations for Persons with Multimorbidity lead by Moira Stewart and Martin Fortin. Dr. Moira Stewart was funded by the Dr. Brian W. Gilbert Canada Research Chair in Primary Health Care Research (2003-2017). Martin Fortin holds the Research Chair on Chronic Diseases in Primary Care (Fondation de ma Vie, Hôpital de Chicoutimi and Université de Sherbrooke).