Development and psychometric properties of the Washington Primary Care Interest Inventory

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Primary Care Research
• Psychosocial Health

Background:

• Assessing medical students' attitudes towards psychosocial issues is crucial for understanding specialty selection.
• The Washington Primary Care Interest Inventory (WPCII) was developed to evaluate these attitudes in family medicine.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development of the WPCII.
• To assess attitudes regarding appropriate psychosocial concerns for family physician visits.
• To demonstrate the relationship between these attitudes and medical student specialty selection.

Main Methods:

• The WPCII was administered to five entering medical student classes (1990-1995, excluding 1992) at the University of Washington.
• Reliability, factor analysis, and predictive validity analyses were conducted.
• Factor analysis identified three underlying factors: stressors, physical complaints, and familial complaints.

Main Results:

• Factor analysis revealed three interpretable factors: stressors, physical complaints, and familial complaints.
• WPCII scales correlated with early career preferences and showed differences based on student selection interview formats.
• Significant differences were observed between sexes for specific items and scales.

Conclusions:

• The WPCII is a reliable and valid tool for measuring attitudes towards family physicians addressing psychosocial complaints.
• These attitudes have implications for medical student selection, curriculum development, and assessment.
• Findings support the use of the WPCII in health education research and practice.