Reliability and Validity of the Arabic Translation of the Public and Patient Engagement Evaluation Tool

Without reliable evaluation tools, ensuring the quality of patient engagement is difficult. The Public and Patient Engagement Evaluation Tool (PPEET) was designed to assess and improve excellence in patient and public engagement (PPE) initiatives across various health system organisations. Since language significantly affects the psychometric properties of research instruments, validated versions of these instruments are crucial.

This study represents the initial phase of exploratory research and marks the first effort to validate the Arabic translation of the PPEET and to track its impact on the healthcare systems of Lebanon and other Arabic-speaking countries. This is a mixed-methods qualitative and quantitative cross-sectional validity and reliability study. The validity was tested by interviewing 10 bilingual healthcare experts. The internal consistency reliability was measured with Cronbach's α and correlation coefficient analysis (N = 60).

Healthcare experts, who were consulted for the face validity of the translated PPEET, had an average age of (34.7 ± 7.9) years with a mean years of work experience of (8.9 ± 6.9). The average clarity percentage for all translated surveys was 96.42%. Cronbach's α coefficients for Participants' Questionnaire Module A, Participants' Questionnaire Module B, Project and Organisation Questionnaire were 0.79, 0.89, 0.95 and 0.89, respectively.

This study demonstrates that the Arabic version of the PPEET is a valid and reliable tool. A large-scale sample would be beneficial for further analysis.

In this study, patient partners were incorporated into the research team as research contributors in the design and implementation of the methodology, not only as consenting participants.