Psychometric evaluation of the German version of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC)

Abstract

Background Healthcare professionals can be a source of stigma and discrimination for people with mental illness, and anti-stigma programs are needed for this target group. However, there is no validated German language scale to assess attitudes of healthcare professionals towards people with mental illness. This study had the aim to validate the German language version of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC), a self-report measure of stigmatizing attitudes. Methods Staff (n = 392) on general psychiatric inpatient wards (excluding child, forensic and geriatric psychiatry) at five psychiatric hospitals in Switzerland (n = 3) and Germany (n = 2) participated in the study. The internal consistency of the OMS-HC was examined as well as its factor structure using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. To assess the scale’s concurrent validity, we used the Social Distance Scale. Results Internal consistency for the OMS-HC total score was good (α = 0.74), acceptable for the subscales Attitudes (α = 0.62) and Social Distance (α = 0.69), and poor for the Disclosure subscale (α = 0.55). The original three-factor structure fit our data well. The OMS-HC total score and the Social Distance subscale score were significantly correlated with the Social Distance Scale, supporting concurrent validity. Conclusion The German version of the OMS-HC demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties and can be recommended for future research and intervention evaluation.

The stigma towards mental illness: Portuguese validation of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Healthcare Providers (OMS-HC)

“…In the validation results of the original validation, Cronbach’s alpha values of less than 0.70 were also obtained ( Modgill et al, 2014 ). In scale validation studies, it was also common for factors to have lower Cronbach’s alpha values, such as the studies conducted in Singapore ( Chang et al, 2017 ), Hungary ( Őri et al, 2020 ), Germany ( Zuaboni et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The OMS-HC validation studies conducted in European countries (Germany, Hungary and Italy) obtained slightly different results ( Destrebecq et al, 2018 ; Őri et al, 2020 ; Zuaboni et al, 2021 ). The German study showed good internal consistency for the total scale (α = 0.74) and lower for the three factors (α < 0.70), and the authors maintained the original factor structure ( Zuaboni et al, 2021 ). The Hungarian study ( Őri et al, 2020 ) also had good internal consistency (α = 0.73) and lower internal consistency for the three factors of the factor structure (α < 0.70).…”

“…So, considering this need the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Healthcare Providers (OMS-HC) was the first scale developed to assess stigma toward mental illness specifically among healthcare professionals ( Kassam et al, 2012 ). A team of researchers from the University of Calgary in Canada developed this scale, and, since then it has been validated in several countries, including Malaysia ( Fernandez et al, 2016 ), Singapore ( Chang et al, 2017 ), Italy ( Destrebecq et al, 2018 ), Pakistan ( Laraib et al, 2018 ), Bahrain ( Al Saif et al, 2019 ), Chile ( Sapag et al, 2019 ), Hungary ( Őri et al, 2020 ), Germany ( Zuaboni et al, 2021 ), Iran ( Movahedi et al, 2022 ) and Brazil ( Carrara et al, 2022 , 2023 ).…”

Independent Supported Housing Versus Institutionalised Residential Rehabilitation for Individuals with Severe Mental Illness: A Survey of Attitudes and Working Conditions Among Mental Healthcare Professionals

“…To assess the extent of stigmatisation of MHCPs toward their service users, attitudes toward individuals with mental illness were assessed using the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) (Modgill et al, 2014;Zuaboni et al, 2021). The OMS-HC includes 15 items to be answered on a 5-point scale (1: strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree) with higher scores indicating more negative attitudes toward persons with mental illness (m = 1.81, SD = 0.41, Cronbach's α = 0.72).…”

Psychometric properties of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers in 32 European countries – A bifactor ESEM representation

“…For this reason, the authors revisited the factor structure of the scale in a larger and more representative sample consisting of various healthcare providers that resulted in a more stable, three-factor solution (attitude, disclosure and help-seeking, and social distance) with 15 items ( 5 ). Studies with different samples of healthcare providers have shown OMS-HC scores to be a reliable and valid measure of stigmatizing attitudes toward patients in Italy ( 6 ), Hungary ( 7 ), Germany and Switzerland ( 8 ), Chile ( 9 ), and Singapore ( 10 ). The three dimensions of attitude, disclosure and help-seeking, and social distance structure appear to be similar; however, in most of the international studies, some items were found to be weak and loaded on different factors than that of the Canadian version and theory.…”