Validez y fiabilidad de un instrumento para evaluar la comunicación clínica en las consultas: El cuestionario CICAA

Abstract

Objective. To assess the validity and reliability of a tool for evaluating the clinical communication skills of health professionals. Design. Descriptive study of the validation of a tool. Setting. Primary and specialist care. Participants. Twenty communication experts, in 31 interviews with patients seen by real and standardised nurses, primary care, and specialist doctors, residents with acute and chronic patients. Interventions. The study looked at a 36-item, multidimensional evaluative scale on 3 levels, based on the CICAA theoretical model of an interview and examined: 1) its apparent validity, consensus, and content: the clinical communication experts made 2 assessments, a qualitative one and one to weigh the importance of the remaining items; 2) its internal consistency and intraobserver reliability. An expert evaluated 31 interviews, video-recorded on 2 occasions with a 1-to-2 month interval. Results. A 29-item scale was obtained. Cronbach's alpha was 0.957 (95% CI, 0.932-0.976). The overall Intra-class Correlation Coefficient was 0.967 (95% CI, 0.933-0.984). The Kappa values of the items were <0.4 in 3, 0.4-0.6 in 6, 0.6-0.8 in 14, and >0.8 in 4. Conclusions. The CICAA is a valid and reliable questionnaire for evaluating the clinical communication between various health professionals and patients.