%0 Journal Article
%T Design and validation of the Health Professionals' Attitudes Toward the Homeless Inventory (HPATHI)
%A David S Buck
%A F Marconi Monteiro
%A Suzanne Kneuper
%A Donna Rochon
%A Dana L Clark
%A Allegra Melillo
%A Robert J Volk
%J BMC Medical Education
%D 2005
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6920-5-2
%X The study consisted of three phases: identifying items for the instrument; pilot testing the initial instrument with a group of 72 third-year medical students; and modifying and administering the instrument in its revised form to 160 health-care professionals and third-year medical students. The instrument was analyzed for reliability and validity throughout the process.A 19-item version of the HPATHI had good internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88 and a test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.69. The HPATHI showed good concurrent validity, and respondents with more than one year of experience with homeless patients scored significantly higher than did those with less experience. Factor analysis yielded three subscales: Personal Advocacy, Social Advocacy, and Cynicism.The HPATHI demonstrated strong reliability for the total scale and satisfactory test-retest reliability. Extreme group comparisons suggested that experience with the homeless rather than medical training itself could affect health-care professionals' attitudes toward the homeless. This could have implications for the evaluation of medical school curricula.In 2003, the Department of Health and Human Services reported that there are between two to three million people in the United States who experience homelessness each year [1]. According to Gelberg and Arangua [2], such estimates provide only a partial picture of the problem: among the U.S. population, 14% (26 million people) have been homeless at some time in their lives and 5% (8.5 million people) have been homeless within the past five years. Yet even as this number grows, the homeless continue to be subjected to broad stereotyping and stigmatization, both of which make it easier to ignore them. It is not surprising then that homeless persons are reluctant to obtain needed, continuous medical care within traditional outpatient settings. This is particularly problematic because they often have competing or immediate needs [3,4], multi
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/5/2