Abstract
Introduction: Managing healthcare resources in a cost-conscious way is an important topic in medical education. A validated instrument to measure the perception of cost-conscious attitudes of medical students could be an important tool for university staff to understanding them and to plan and evaluate educational interventions to address them. Objectives: To validate a scale to measure the perception of cost-conscious attitudes among medical students. Method: Thirteen items from a survey to measure cost-conscious attitudes in medical students were used. Semantic validation and psychometric analysis (exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach alpha, and composite reliability test) were carried out. Results: A sample of 275 participants, of which 62% were female, with an average age of 25±3.1 years, completed the questionnaire. The best structure to measure the perceptions is the one-factor solution, with 11 of the 13 items remaining in the final version. Substantial Cronbach's alpha for this questionnaire was obtained 0.66 and composite reliability was 0.77. Conclusion: The results suggest that the questionnaire has a satisfactory psychometric quality and is therefore able to measure the perception of medical students about cost-conscious attitudes.
Highlights
The cost-conscious management of healthcare resources is an important subject in the education of medical students and physicians
A total of 500 questionnaires were sent to the medical students, and 275 students answered and returned them
Educational interventions to change the behavior of physicians towards more cost-conscious attitudes can be instituted from medical school
Summary
The cost-conscious management of healthcare resources is an important subject in the education of medical students and physicians. The cost of medical tests and procedures should reflect the principles of medical professionalism, from the patient’s welfare to respect for the patient’s autonomy and social justice[1]. Requests by doctors for low-value tests, treatments, and procedures are among the average sources of waste in healthcare[3]. According to Brazilian Ministry of Health data, there are requests for tests after 30 to 50% of outpatient visits to the Unified Health System (SUS), the Brazilian public healthcare system.[4] Eliminating or at least reducing the waste from these poorly thought out medical decisions could result in improvements in safety and efficiency in treatment for patients, as well as bring benefits to the sustainability of the health care system
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