Nicola Small|Peter Bower|Carolyn Chew?Graham|Diane Whalley|Joanne Protheroe
Patient empowerment in long-term conditions: development and preliminary testing of a new measure
Manchester Academic Health Science Centre|University of Manchester|Manchester Academic Health Science Centre|University of Manchester|Keele University|Keele University
patient empowerment viewed policy makers health care practitioners mechanism help patients longterm conditions better manage health achieve better outcomes however assessing role empowerment dependent effective measures empowerment although many measures empowerment exist measure developed specifically patients longterm conditions primary care setting study presents preliminary data development validation measurewe conducted two empirical studies study one interview study understand empowerment perspective patients living longterm conditions qualitative analysis identified dimensions empowerment qualitative data used generate items relating dimensions study two crosssectional postal study involving patients different types longterm conditions recruited general practices survey conducted test validate new measure empowerment factor analysis regression performed test scale structure internal consistency construct validitysixteen predominately elderly patients different types longterm conditions described empowerment terms 5 dimensions identity knowledge understanding personal control personal decisionmaking enabling patients one hundred ninety seven survey responses received mainly older white females relatively low levels formal education majority retired paid work almost half sample reported cardiovascular joint diabetes longterm conditions factor analysis identified three factor solution positive attitude sense control knowledge confidence decision making enabling others although structure lacked clarity total empowerment score across items showed acceptable levels internal consistency relationships measures generally supportive construct validityinitial analyses suggest new empowerment measure meets basic psychometric criteria reasons concerning failure confirm hypothesized factor structure discussed alongside developments scale