Translation and Cultural Adaptation of the Polish Version of the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT)

Abstract

Natalia Świątoniowska-Lonc,1 Artur Białoszewski,2 Gregory Makoul,3,4 Beata Jankowska-Polańska1 1Department of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Health Science, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland; 2Department of Prevention of Environmental Hazards and Allergology, Warsaw Medical University, Warsaw, Poland; 3PatientWisdom, Inc., New Haven, CT, USA; 4Department of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USACorrespondence: Natalia Świątoniowska-LoncDepartment of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Health Science, Wroclaw Medical University, K. Bartla 5, Wroclaw 51-616, PolandTel [phone]Fax [phone]Email [email protected] and Objective: Adequate communication skills are the core competency of healthcare providers for optimal patient interaction and relationships based on mutual trust. Unfortunately, there are still few publications assessing the type and effectiveness of therapeutic communication, and there are no tools to facilitate the standard, regular evaluation of the process. The objective of this study was the translation and cultural adaptation of a Polish version of the 14-item Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) to assess the interpersonal and communication skills of physicians and to identify determinants influencing the quality of communication.Design: It is an exploratory and cross-sectional survey design. The patients completed a survey consisted of the CAT. Socio-demographic data were obtained from the hospital register.Setting: Hypertension clinic at the clinical hospital in Wrocław.Participants: A total of 300 patients with diagnosed hypertension were selected. Of these, 50 patients were excluded (mental illness, cognitive impairment, resignation). A total of 250 people (61.23± 14.34 years) participated in the study. Qualification for the study was carried out by a trained doctor, who is an internal medicine specialist.Main Measure Outcome: Translation and cultural adaptation of Polish CAT.Results: Cronbach’s alpha for the CAT is 0.96 and does not require the exclusion of any items to increase its value. The loadings of the individual items ranged from 0.725 to 0.894. At the item level, results ranged from 28.4% to 50.4% “excellent”, the highest scores were given to “let me talk without interruptions” (50.4%) and “talked in terms I could understand” (47.6%). The correlation analysis showed a modestly positive statistical effect of the duration of a medical visit (r=0.225) and the time spent on talking about patient’s problems (r=0.23) with the general result of the CAT questionnaire (p< 0.001).Conclusion: The CAT is a very good tool for assessing the quality of communication in Polish-speaking settings and can be recommended for use in everyday practice.Keywords: assessment tool, communication skills, psychometric, physician–patient communication

Keywords

• • assessment tool
• • communication skills
• • psychometric
• • physician–patient communication