PRELIMINARY VALIDATION OF INSTRUMENTS USE D TO MEASURE KNOWLEDGE, PERCEIVED SKILLS, AND ATTITUDES OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS

OBJECTIVE To examine the validity and the reliability of three measure ment instruments used to evaluate mental health training offered to re sidents in family medicine. DESIGN Development and submission of three French-language instruments measuring knowledge, perceived skills, an d attitudes of family physicians and residents. SETTING Weekly psychot herapy workshop. PARTICIPANTS A group of 90 family medicine residents and practising doctors were recruited by the authors and by teaching f acilities. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Reliability index KR20 and an evaluati on of error in the instruments were used. RESULTS The results satisfac tory in terms of the measurement of perceived skills (KR20 = 0,86) and the measurement of attitudes (KR20 = 0,96); the measurement of knowle dge (KR20 = 0,70) was clearly unsatisfactory and the instrument will r equire upgrading. The measurement of perceived skills was the only one to reveal a distinction between the groups; practising doctors and th ose interested in psychotherapy believed their skills to be superior t o those of residents in training (P = 0,005). CONCLUSION Instruments m easuring attitudes and perceived skills have excellent psychometric po tential; however, it remains to be determined whether the measurement of perceived skills is valid and whether these instruments are useful for monitoring family medicine residents during their training or for assessing the impact of mental health training programs.