Psychometric evaluation of the Arabic version of the patient-centered communication instrument for adult cancer patients

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of the Arabic version of the patient-centered communication instrument. Methods: A self-administered instrument was used over 4 months by 318 participants living with cancer in Saudi Arabia. The instrument contained 36 items assessing patient-centered communication (PCC-36) experiences. The PCC-36 instrument was translated into Arabic following the World Health Organization guidelines for translating instruments before undergoing psychometric evaluation. This involved confirmatory factor analysis for each of the PCC-36 functions and testing the reliability and internal consistency of the PCC-36 measures. Results: The Arabic-translated PCC-36 version demonstrated a good correlation between items, with confirmatory factor analysis showing a good fit of the data (comparative fit index = 0.922, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.910, root mean square error approximation = 0.059, χ = 1214.4, df = 579, P < 0.001). Internal consistency of the total six PCC-36 functions was confirmed by a Cronbach's alpha of 0.97. Conclusions: The study proved that the PCC-36 Arabic version is a valid and reliable instrument for the measurement of patient communication experiences in cancer care in Saudi Arabia, with similar properties to the original, and that this instrument may be used in 22 different Arab countries to measure and improve cancer patients' communication experiences.