Cross-cultural validation of Malay version of perceived professionalism among dental patients

Professionalism is a dynamic construct that requires constant revision based on contemporary practices and attitudes.

The purpose of this study was to cross-culturally adapt an already validated English questionnaire assessing patient perceptions of professionalism among dentists, into the Malay language.

An original 24-item questionnaire was cross-cultural adapted in the Malaysian context through two phases. Phase I included content and face validity from experts' evaluation which was followed by translation into the Malay language. Phase II involved psychometric assessment including construct validity and reliability analysis.

Expert evaluation indicated that all items demonstrated excellent content validity for the characteristics of relevance (CVI = 0.75-1.00 Kappa = 0.72-1.00) and clarity (CVI = 0.75-1.00 and Kappa= 0.72-1.00). A total of 300 dental patients completed the questionnaire. EFA was done on the first dataset and the second dataset was subjected to CFA which showed composite reliability (CR) ranging between 0.741 and 0.897 indicating acceptable reliability among items. The final questionnaire had 20 items with 3 domains; Patient expectation of a dental care provider, Ethics and Dentist's professional responsibilities, Patient communication and confidentiality.

This study has successfully validated the questionnaire for patient perception of professionalism in the Malaysian context.