The Psychiatric Out-Patient Experiences Questionnaire (POPEQ): Data quality, reliability and validity in patients attending 90 Norwegian clinics

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the Psychiatric Out-Patient Experiences Questionnaire (POPEQ). The instrument was developed following a literature review, patient interviews and pre-testing of questionnaire items. The POPEQ was administered as part of a postal survey of 15,422 adult outpatients attending Norwegian clinics; 6677 (43.3%) patients responded to the questionnaire. Items had low levels of missing data. Factor analysis showed that 11 widely applicable items contribute to a measure of overall experiences. Sub-dimensions include clinician interaction (six items) information (two items) and outcomes (three items). Item-total correlations ranged from 0.5 to 0.8. Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability estimates exceeded the criterion of 0.7; the majority were over 0.8 and total scores over 0.9. Construct validity was supported by the results of 128 tests. The POPEQ includes important aspects of patient experience for psychiatric outpatients and has excellent evidence for reliability and construct validity. The instrument is recommended for the measurement of psychiatric outpatient experiences.

Five-point scales outperform 10-point scales in a randomized comparison of item scaling for the Patient Experiences Questionnaire

“…Evidence from patient interviews and pilot surveys support the use of this scale, and there is good evidence for the data quality, reliability, and validity of other Norwegian PEQs that use this form of scaling [17,27,28]. The present study provides further evidence supporting the use of the five-point scale through a randomized design comparing two different versions of the PEQ, the original version with the 10-point scale [24] and a version with the five-point scale.…”

“…The encouraging results after more recent Norwegian national surveys that used the five-point scale [17,27,28] have meant that this form of scaling has been considered for use with the PEQ. The work that follows presents a randomized comparison of the original version of the PEQ with 10-point scales with a version that uses a five-point all-point-defined scale.…”

“…However, this scale produced poor levels of data quality in pilot studies with psychiatric patients. Subsequent national surveys have used five-point all-point-defined scales that have produced data that was more normally distributed with lower floor and ceiling effects both for psychiatry and other groups of patients [17,27,28]. The finding that such scales produce better data quality with less of a skew toward positive experiences led to their adoption in a national survey of parent experiences of child inpatient care [17].…”

Psychiatric outpatients' experiences with specialized health care delivery. A Norwegian national survey

“…The POPEQ was developed following a review of the Anglo-American and Scandinavian literature, patient interviews and discussions within a network of experienced clinicians (Garratt et al, 2006). The instrument has good evidence for data quality, reliability and validity (Garratt et al, 2006).…”

“…Such measurement usually takes the form of self-completed questionnaires administered to the patients' following a defined episode of care (Barker & Orrell, 1999;Crow et al, 2002;Garratt et al, 2006;Gigantesco, Morosini, & Bazzoni, 2003;Middelboe, Schjodt, Byrsting, & Gjerris, 2001;Pellegrin, Stuart, Maree, Frueh, & Ballenger, 2001;Powell, Holloway, Lee, & Sitzia, 2004).…”