Abstract
BackgroundInstruments to detect changes in attitudes towards people with disabilities are important for evaluation of training programs and for research. While we were interested in instruments specific for medical students, we aimed to systematically review the medical literature for validated survey instruments used to measure attitudes of healthcare students and professionals towards patients with physical disability.MethodsWe electronically searched Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Health and Psychosocial Instruments. We included papers reporting on the development and/or validation of survey instruments to measure attitudes of healthcare students and professionals towards patients with physical disability. We excluded papers in which the attitudes were not measured in a provider-patient context. Two reviewers carried out titles and abstracts screening, full texts screening, and data abstraction in a duplicate and independent manner using standardized and pilot tested forms.ResultsWe identified seven validated survey instruments used for healthcare students and professionals. These instruments were originally developed for the following target populations: general population (n = 4); dental students (n = 1); nursing students (n = 1); and rehabilitation professionals (n = 1). The types of validity reported for these instruments were content validity (n = 3), criterion-related validity (n = 1), construct validity (n = 2), face validity (n = 1), discriminant validity (n = 1), and responsiveness (n = 1). The most widely validated and used tool (ATDP) was developed in the late 1960s while the most recent instrument was developed in the early 1990s.ConclusionOf the seven identified validated instruments, less than half were specifically designed for healthcare students and professionals and none for medical students. There is a need to develop and validate a contemporary instrument specifically for medical students.
Highlights
Instruments to detect changes in attitudes towards people with disabilities are important for evaluation of training programs and for research
While we were interested in instruments for medical students we aimed to identify instruments for healthcare students and professionals in general as they could be potentially useful for our aim
The screening process identified nine citations reporting on the development and/or validation of seven eligible instruments: Attitudes towards disabled people (ATDP) [25], Dental Students’ Attitudes Toward the Handicapped Scale (DSATHS) [26], Scale of Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons (SADP) [27], Interaction with Disabled Persons (IDP) [28], Contact with Disabled Persons Scale (CDP) [29], Attitudes Toward Physically Disabled College Students (ATPDSC) [30,31], Rehabilitation Situations Inventory (RSI) [32]
Summary
Instruments to detect changes in attitudes towards people with disabilities are important for evaluation of training programs and for research. People with disabilities have cited negative attitudes and Negative attitudes held by health care providers about patients with disabilities may affect care that the patient receives. These attitudes and misconceptions are usually not overtly hostile, they may result in patients with disabilities not receiving appropriate treatment or not receiving indicated preventive care [2,6,7,8]. The assumption that a patient with a disability has a baseline quality of life which is low may lead the physician to defer aggressive treatment of acute problems[3,9]. Adverse outcomes may be compounded and services available to patients may be limited if these subtle attitudes unduly affect the physician’s judgment and actions. [5]
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