Resumen

CALDERON, José G. E. et al. Metric Characteristics of a Professional Quality of Life Questionnaire in Cardiologists. Rev. argent. cardiol. [online]. 2008, vol.76, n.5, pp.359-367. ISSN 1850-3748.

Background Health care systems quality seems to be related with the professional satisfaction of health care providers; for this reason there is a special interest in studying occupational stress and job dissatisfaction among physicians. In addition, it is well known that measuring the professional quality of life (PQL) may vary according to the instrument used, to the organizational environment of the health care system and to the type of professional or medical specialty practiced. Objective To assess the feasibility, internal consistency, discriminative capacity and factorial composition of a PQL questionnaire used in a population of cardiologists in Argentina. Material and Methods Between April and June 2007 we offered an anonymous questionnaire to 717 cardiologists in order to assess different aspects related to the PQL: perception of their working situation, personal accomplishment and expectancy in the future. An analysis of factors was performed and the validity of construction and the reliability of the questionnaire were measured. Results The analysis identified the three aforementioned domains. These three components altogether explained the 46% of the total variability of the instrument, a level considered necessary for an adequate structural validity. The Cronbach’s α for the total questionnaire was 0.76. Finally, a good correlation was observed between the total score of the instrument and the partial score in each domain (factor 1: rho=0.806, p<0.0001; factor 2: rho=0.726, p<0.0001 and factor 3: rho=0.754, p<0.0001). Conclusions The analysis of the metric characteristics of this questionnaire demonstrated the feasibility and validity of the instrument as a tool to measure the QPL among cardiologists in Argentina.

Palabras clave : Quality of Life; Job Satisfaction; Physicians; Questionnaire; Psychometrics; Test Validity; Reproducibility of Results.

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