Development and psychometric properties of the Washington primary care interest inventory

Purpose. To describe the development of the Washington Primary Care Interes t Inventory (WPCII), which was designed to assess attitudes toward what con stitutes appropriate psychosocial concerns for visiting a family physician, and to demonstrate the relationship between these attitudes and specialty selection in matriculating medical students. Method. Five entering classes of medical students (1990 to 1995, without 19 92) at the University of Washington were administered the WPCII during orie ntation. Reliability, factor, and predictive validity analyses were perform ed to measure the utility of the WPCII. Results. Factor analysis revealed three interpretable factors to underlie t he WPCII: stressors, physical complaints, and familial complaints. Scales d eveloped from these factors correlated with students' early career preferen ces and showed significant differences across students who were selected un der different interviewing formats. Differences between the sexes were foun d for both specific items and scales. Conclusion. The WPCII is a reliable and valid measure of attitudes toward t he appropriateness of family physicians' treating psychosocial complaints. These attitudes have implications fur the selection of medical students, cu rriculum development, assessment, and health education research.