Translation and validation of the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale in Turkey

Background: The Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale is designed to compare a patient-oriented approach with a doctor-oriented approach among medical personnel. Aims: The aim of this study is to adapt the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale to Turkish. The hypotheses that the Turkish version shows linguistic equivalence and comparable validity, reliability and factor load were tested. Study design: This descriptive correlational study describes the translation process and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale. Methods: The original scale was first translated into Turkish using translation-back translation method. Linguistic equivalence was tested by bilingual groups design through conducting the scale to English speaking first term medical students and comparing original and target scale items by Spearman correlation coefficient. Medical students (n=379) from two medical schools in Turkey were enrolled in the study to complete the Turkish scale in order to test validity and reliability. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were completed to evaluate structure validity. Cronbach Alpha values were defined for internal consistency. Results: Items in the Turkish version compared to the original scale items showed a relation between 0.41 and 0.71 (p<0,01) verifying linguistic equivalence. Primary exploratory factor analysis revealed that four items did not achieve a loading factor of 0.30 and these items were excluded. After factor analysis and tests of internal consistency, a shortened version with 14 items was formed (PPOS - T14). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were 0.800 for the entire sample group, 0.732 for the sharing domain and 0.653 for the caring domain and were found adequate. Conclusions: The Turkish form of the PPOS showed linguistic equivalence, satisfactory validity and acceptable reliability. PPOS - T14 is a reliable tool to evaluate patient-centeredness between medical students in Turkish-speaking countries