Patient Safety Climate in Danish Primary Care: Adaption and Validation of the Danish Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ-DK-PRIM)

Marie Haase Juhl, Anne Estrup Olesen*, Ellen Tveter Deilkås, Niels Henrik Bruun, Kirsten Høgh Obling, Nikoline Rytter, Maya Damgaard Larsen, Solvejg Kristensen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: A lack of instruments to assess patient safety climate within primary care exists. The objectives of this study were as follows: 1) To adapt the Danish hospital version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ-DK) for use in primary care; 2) Test the internal consistency and the construct validity of this version; 3) Present benchmark data; and 4) Analyze variance.

METHODS: The SAQ-DK was adapted for use in Danish primary care settings (SAQ-DK-PRIM) and distributed to healthcare staff members from nursing homes (N = 11), homecare units (N = 4) and healthcare units (N = 2), within the municipality of Aarhus, Central Denmark Region, Denmark. Face- and content validity were assessed. The construct validity was evaluated by a set of goodness-of-fit indices. The internal reliability was evaluated using the item-rest correlations, the inter-item correlations, and Cronbach's alpha (α).

RESULTS: The adaptation process resulted in a questionnaire of 10 items. Eight hundred and thirty healthcare staffs participated (78% of the eligible respondents). In total 586 (70.6%) responses were complete and were included in the analysis. Goodness-of-fit indices from the confirmatory factor analysis showed: Chi2=46.90CFI=0.97, RMSEA = 0.063 (90% CI: 0.044-0.084), Probability RMSEA (p close)=0.12. Internal reliability was high (Cronbach's α=0.76). Proportions of participants with a positive attitude was 41.1% and did not differ between the healthcare services. Scale mean score was 70.19 (SD: 18.05) and differed between healthcare services. The safety climate scale scores did not vary according to healthcare service type. ICC was 0.68% indicating no clustering of scores by healthcare service type.

CONCLUSION: Considering the questionnaire's applicability, short length, strengthened focus on one area of interest and validity, the SAQ-DK-PRIM can serve as a valuable tool for measuring patient safety climate within primary care settings in Denmark.

Original languageEnglish
JournalClinical Epidemiology
Volume16
Pages (from-to)533-547
Number of pages15
ISSN1179-1349
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

© 2024 Juhl et al.

Keywords

  • Denmark
  • patient safety climate
  • patient safety culture
  • primary care
  • questionnaire
  • reliability
  • validity

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