Abstract A23: Psychometric development and validation of a Patient Satisfaction with Interpersonal Relationship with Navigator (PSN-I) measure: A multisite National Cancer Institute-sponsored Patient Navigation Research Program (PNRP) study

Background: Patient navigation (PN) is used increasingly to address racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in cancer care. Patient navigators provide logistic and emotional support to help patients successfully complete the cancer diagnostic and treatment care. Despite the importance of interpersonal relationships between patient and health care staff, there is no measure of patient satisfaction with the interpersonal relationship with his/her navigator.

Objective: To validate the PSN-I scale for patients undergoing diagnostic and therapeutic cancer care.

Methods: We administered the nine-item PSN-I to 783 participants recruited from the nine different sites of the National Cancer Institute-sponsored PNRP. We randomly divided the English language proficient sample into two subsamples (N1 = 391 and N2 = 392). We used the first subsample to test the latent structure of the PSN-I and the second subsample to replicate and confirm its stability. We evaluated the latent structure and internal consistency of the PSN using principal components analysis (PCA) and Cronbach coefficient alpha (α) respectively. We used correlation analyses to examine divergence and convergence of the PSN with the Patient Satisfaction with Cancer-Related Care (PSCC), the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Long Form (REALM-LF), and patients’ demographic characteristics.

Results: The PCA revealed a coherent set of items that explicates 76% of the variance in PSN-I. Reliability assessment revealed high internal consistency (α ranging from 0.95 to 0.96). The PSN-I had good face validity, as well as convergent and divergent validities as indicated by moderate positive correlations with score on the PSCC (all ps < 0.0001) and nonsignificant correlations with primary language, marital status, and scores on the REALM-LF (all ps > 0.05).

Conclusion: The PSN-I is a nine-item scale that shows high internal consistency and construct validity for patient assessment of the interpersonal relationship with their navigator during cancer-related care.

Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):A23.