Healthcare communication distress scale: Pilot factor analysis and validity

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Communication Research
• Psychometric Measurement
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Effective patient-practitioner communication is crucial in primary healthcare.
• Existing measures may not fully capture patients' emotional experiences during consultations.
• Understanding patient perceptions is key to improving healthcare interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To psychometrically develop an evidence-based, patient-centered measure of patient-practitioner communication.
• To explore the constructs underlying adult patients' perceptions of emotional experiences during healthcare communication.
• To create a brief scale for measuring patient distress in healthcare settings.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional online survey of 220 Australian adults.
• Utilized a 16-item piloted questionnaire alongside validated measures of anxiety, distress, and body vigilance.
• Employed exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical multiple regression for construct exploration.

Main Results:

• A 6-item communication distress factor and a 3-item environmental arousal factor were identified with good validity and internal consistency.
• Environmental arousal emerged as the most significant predictor of communication distress.
• Bivariate correlations supported convergent and discriminant validity for both identified factors.

Conclusions:

• The developed patient communication questionnaire can be refined into a brief scale.
• This scale can effectively measure patient distress related to healthcare communication and engagement.
• The findings underscore the impact of environmental factors on patient communication experiences.