Abstract
BackgroundContinuity of care is regarded as a core quality element in healthcare. Continuity can be related to one or more specific caregivers but also applies to collaboration within a team or across boundaries of healthcare. Measuring continuity is important to identify problems and evaluate quality improvement of interventions.This study aimed to assess the feasibility and psychometric properties of a Norwegian version of the Nijmegen Continuity Questionnaire (NCQ).MethodsThe NCQ was developed in The Netherlands. It measures patients’ experienced continuity of care across multiple care settings and as a multidimensional concept regardless of morbidity. The NCQ comprises 28 items categorised into three subscales; two personal continuity scales, “care giver knows me” and “shows commitment”, asked regarding the patient’s general practitioner (GP) and the most important specialist; and one “team/cross boundary continuity” scale, asked regarding primary care, specialised care and cooperation between GP and specialist, with a total of seven factors. The NCQ was translated and adapted to Norwegian (NCQ-N) and distributed among patients referred to somatic rehabilitation (N = 984, response rate 34.5%). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), Cronbach’s alpha, intra-class correlation (ICC) and Bland–Altman plots were used to assess psychometric properties.ResultsAll patients (N = 375) who had responded to all parts of the NCQ-N were included in CFA. The CFA fit indices (CFI 0.941, RMSEA 0.064 (95% CI 0.059–0.070), SRMR 0.041) support a seven-factor structure in the NCQ-N based on the three subscales of the original NCQ. Cronbach’s alpha showed internal consistency (0.84–0.97), and was highest for the team/cross-boundary subscales. The NCQ-N showed overall high reliability with ICC 0.84–91 for personal continuity factors and 0.67–0.91 for team factors, with the lowest score for team continuity within primary care.ConclusionsPsychometric assessment of the NCQ-N supports that this instrument, based on the three subscales of the original Dutch NCQ, captures the concept of “continuity of care” among adult patients with a variety of longstanding medical conditions who use healthcare on a regular basis. However, its usefulness among varied patient groups, including younger people, patients with acute disorders and individuals with mental health problems, should be further evaluated.
Highlights
Continuity of care is regarded as a core quality element in healthcare
Continuity of care is a multi-faceted concept [8] that has broadened in recent decades from a focus on personal continuity related to one caregiver, towards personal, informational and management continuity involving several healthcare professionals [9,10,11]
This study aims to describe the adaptation of the Nijmegen Continuity Questionnaire (NCQ) into a Norwegian version (NCQ-N) and to assess its feasibility and psychometric properties for Norwegian patients with various chronic somatic disorders
Summary
Continuity of care is regarded as a core quality element in healthcare. Continuity of care is considered to be fundamental to quality healthcare [1, 2]. An elevated risk for fragmented care is likely in complex health services with large units and several professional groups [15]. Both cooperation between caregivers in teams (team continuity) and information handover during a care process (cross-boundary continuity) are considered crucial to ensuring high quality of care [5, 10]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
