Validation of the Collaborative Practice Assessment Tool (CPAT) to assess the degree of inter-professional collaboration (IPC) in a Community Hospital in Singapore

Abstract

The Collaborative Practice Assessment Tool (CPAT) is a self-administered questionnaire that can be used to measure the degree of inter-professional collaboration (IPC) within a healthcare team. However, the CPAT has not been validated in Singapore, and there is currently no validated instrument to measure the degree of IPC among healthcare professionals in Singapore. To validate the CPAT in a community hospital (CH) in Singapore. Data was collected prospectively from 148 participants from a CH in Singapore from October 2019 to April 2020. Using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) framework, we assessed content validity, construct validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the CPAT. We started by assessing content validity through cognitive interviews with healthcare professionals. We assessed construct validity by testing 12 a priori hypotheses on the correlation of CPAT domain scores with global impression and Assessment of Inter-professional Team Collaboration Scale (AITCS). We assessed internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha and assessed test-retest reliability using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between responses at 2 time points (baseline and 2 weeks). From the responses of the 148 participants, we established construct validity by meeting >75% of the hypotheses formulated a priori. We showed high internal consistency in 7 domains (Cronbach's alpha >0.7) of the CPAT, and moderate internal consistency in one domain (Cronbach's alpha = 0.63) of the CPAT. We also demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability in seven domains of the CPAT (ICC >0.5). This study provides support for the content validity, construct validity, internal consistency and test–retest reliability of the CPAT to measure the degree of inter-professional collaboration in a community hospital in Singapore. This enables clinicians and researchers to use the CPAT to measure the interventions to enhance inter-professional collaboration in Singapore.