Abstract
AimTo develop the Primary care fUnctions oF Family physicians in Childhood Asthma (PUFFinCA) scale for evaluating the cardinal process functions of primary care services (accessibility, comprehensiveness, continuity and coordination) provided by family physicians (FPs) in the management of childhood asthma. BACKGROUND: In the literature on the functions of primary care, there is no assessment tool focusing on children with asthma. Primary care assessment scales adapted to various languages are not suitable to adequately address the needs of special patient groups, such as children with asthma. METHODS: In this methodological study, the instrument development process was completed in four stages: establishing the pool of items, evaluating the content validity, applying the scale and statistical analysis. The scale was applied to 320 children who had asthma and received care in the clinic of the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Pulmonology at Ege University School of Medicine, Turkey. The Cronbach's α and Spearman-Brown coefficient were calculated to determine the reliability of the scale. Principal component analysis was used to determine the construct validity of the scale.FindingsThe PUFFinCA scale was found to have four-factor structure and 25 items. Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.93. It has been determined that the reliability was excellent and the item-total correlation coefficients were >0.30 each. The factors were titled FP's 'functions of accessibility, first contact and continuity', 'functions of coordination and comprehensiveness of health services related to asthma management', 'provision of preventive care related to asthma' and 'provision of services for paid vaccinations'.
Highlights
The cardinal functions of primary care can be addressed as three levels, consisting of structure, process and outcome
Measurement of the cardinal functions of the process level will determine the extent to which primary care services are accessible regardless of socioeconomic and demographic status, the extent to which the preventive and curative health services offered in the primary care unit cover the needs of the community, whether a long-term or lifelong relationship could be established between the primary care provider and the individuals or the community and the extent to which the information about previous health problems of individuals and about services they received for these problems are integrated by primary care (Starfield, 1998; Kringos et al, 2015)
The aim of this study is to develop the Primary care fUnctions oF Family physicians in Childhood Asthma (PUFFinCA) scale for evaluating the cardinal process functions of primary care services provided by family physicians (FPs) in the management of childhood asthma
Summary
The cardinal functions of primary care can be addressed as three levels, consisting of structure, process and outcome. Measurement of the cardinal functions of the process level will determine the extent to which primary care services are accessible regardless of socioeconomic and demographic status, the extent to which the preventive and curative health services offered in the primary care unit cover the needs of the community, whether a long-term or lifelong relationship could be established between the primary care provider and the individuals or the community and the extent to which the information about previous health problems of individuals and about services they received for these problems are integrated by primary care (Starfield, 1998; Kringos et al, 2015). Accessibility is fulfilled substantially in many countries, coordination cannot be achieved successfully (Lee et al, 2009; Kringos, 2013; Yang et al, 2013; Pavlič et al, 2015; Akman et al, 2017)
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