Theoretical approach and scale construction of doctors’ protection behavior of patients’ privacy in Chinese public medical institutions (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Considering the high incidence of medical privacy disclosure, it is of vital importance to study doctors’ privacy protection behavior and its influencing factors. OBJECTIVE We aimed to explore the internal mechanism of doctors' protection of patients' privacy in Chinese public medical institutions using of grounded theory, in order to construct a theoretical model framework, to develop, and subsequently to validate a scale to measure this protection behavior. METHODS Combined with PMT and interview data, the grounded theory research method, and followed by the Delphi expert and group discussion methods, a theoretical framework and initial scale for doctors in Chinese public medical institutions to protect patients' privacy was formed. The adjusted scale was collected online using a WeChat electronic survey. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes and tests to analyze reliability and validity were performed on the sample data. RESULTS This study formed a theory regarding doctors' privacy protection behavior of patients in Chinese public medical institutions. Ultimately, we created a scale to measure 18 variables in the theoretical model, comprised of 63 measurement items, with a total of 208 doctors participating in the scaling survey. The research demonstrated that the scale had respectable internal consistency, in which the fit of the confirmatory factor model was good. CONCLUSIONS The theoretical framework and scale to assess doctors' patient protection behavior in public medical institutions in China fills a significant gap in the literature and can be used to further the current knowledge of physicians’ thought processes and adoption decisions.