Development of an instrument to measure patients' attitudes towards involuntary hospitalization.

AIM: To construct and assess the psychometric properties of an instrument to measure patients' attitudes towards involuntary hospitalization.

METHODS: This is a two phase study. In the first phase, based on comprehensive literature review, a twenty one item scale to measure patients' attitudes to involuntary admission was constructed. Forensic and inpatient Psychiatrists, patients' advocates and legal experts (n = 15) were invited to participate in the validation process of the written instrument, by formally rating each item of the instrument for its relevancy in measuring patients' attitudes to involuntary admission. In the second phase of the project, the instrument was administered to a sample of eighty consecutive patients, who were admitted involuntarily to an acute psychiatric unit of a teaching hospital. All patients completed the constructed attitudes towards involuntary admission scale, and the client satisfaction questionnaire.

RESULTS: Responses from psychiatry and advocacy experts provided evidence for face and content validity for the constructed instrument. The internal consistency reliability of the instrument is 0.84 (Chronbach' alpha), factor analysis resulted in three correlated, and theoretically meaningful factors. There was evidence for content, convergent, and concurrent validity.

CONCLUSION: A reliable twenty one item instrument scale to measure patients' attitudes to involuntary admission was developed. The developed instrument has high reliability, there is strong evidence for validity, and it takes ten minutes to complete.