[Reliability of a questionnaire used in the long-term follow up of the opinion and perceptions of family medicine by medical students of the University of Zaragoza (Spain)].

AIM: Family medicine deals with certain aspects and perspectives that are often left behind in the training of other levels of care, thus the need for medical students to make contact with Primary Care is of increasing importance. The aim of this study is to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire of the UNIMEDIFAM group (FIS PI070975) for the long-term outcome of expectations and knowledge about family medicine.

DESIGN: Reliability of a questionnaire.

SETTING: University of Zaragoza.

PARTICIPANTS: 371 students from the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th years.

METHOD: The internal consistency of the questionnaire was determined using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and the stability using the test-retest.

RESULTS: On scale A of the questionnaire we found that three of 19 items were unstable, in 8 of 26 on scale B, and 3 of 38 items on scale C. The Cronbach's alpha value of scale A was 0.722, 0.861 on scale B, and 0,663 on scale C.

CONCLUSIONS: The 3 scales are within the appropriate values, except scale C, which is very close. The findings of this validation process can serve as a reference that may be extrapolated to the UNIMEDIFAM national questionnaire.