The validity and psychometric properties of the Person-Centered Primary Care Measure in a Chinese Population

Abstract

The Problem: Person-centered care is the core value of primary care. The Person-Centered Primary Care Measure (PCPCM) was developed in 2019 in the USA to conveniently assess aspects of generalist practice that patients perceived as important. It has been tested in 28 different languages with its validity confirmed but not yet in Chinese. A validated Chinese-translation of the PCPCM is hence needed to facilitate its use in benchmarking the performance of the primary care practices amongst the Chinese with the international standard. The Approach: The aim of this study was to evaluate the construct validity and psychometric properties of the PCPCM among Chinese patients. 300 Chinese adult patients were recruited from a primary care clinic in Hong Kong to complete a questionnaire containing the Chinese version of PCPCM (the content validity of which had been confirmed through cognitive debriefing previously), Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE), Patient Enablement Index (PEI) and Adult (short version) Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT). The Chinese PCPCM was re-administered to 118 participants after 14 days for test-retest reliability. The Findings: The Chinese PCPCM was identified to have a one-factor construct, with good item fit and uni-dimensionality on Rasch analysis. Internal reliability was high (Cronbach’s alpha >0.8) with moderate test-retest reliability (ICC=0.622, p<0.001). Significant correlations (0.58, 0.42, 0.48) between the PCPCM and CARE, PEI, and Adult (short version) PCAT scores supported good convergent construct validity. PCPCM scores were higher among patients who had known their doctors for a longer period or who were more likely to be able to see the same doctor at every visit, and among those who self-reported to have “better health” rather than “worse health”. The Consequences: Our results supported the validity, reliability and sensitivity of the Chinese PCPCM. This serves as a good basis for its further research amongst the Chinese-speaking population.