Validating the Assessing Student Competence and Knowledge of Social Determinants of Health (ASCK-SDH) Instrument

Abstract

The impact of the social determinants of health (SDH) on health outcomes is receiving increased attention. Health profession students need to learn about SDH; however, there are no validated tools to measure student competence in assessing SDH. There is a need for a brief, valid instrument to measure student competency and knowledge of SDH. This study is a secondary analysis of data collected pre (N=394) and post (N=387) for an interprofessional learning event. We utilized principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation to determine the internal structure of the tool. The original measure consisted of 11 items; the analysis resulted in two factors. Based on the two factors it was determined the three items from Factor 2 were not contributing to the scale; therefore, they were removed. The final measure, Assessing Student Competence & Knowledge of Social Determinants of Health (ASCK-SDH), consists of eight items rated on a 4-point Likert scale. The measure indicated high internal consistency at pre (Cronbach’s α= 0.81) and post (Cronbach’s α=0.89) tests. The ASCK-SDH tool provides a valid instrument to measure student competence and knowledge about SDH and can be used to assess learning.

Keywords

• social determinants of health
• health education
• interprofessional education