Department of Primary Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Jalan Prima Selayang 7, Batu Caves 68100, Malaysia.
Institute of Pathology, Laboratory & Forensic Medicine (I-PPerForM), Universiti Teknologi MARA, Jalan Hospital, Sungai Buloh 47000, Malaysia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 5;18(7):3778. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18073778.
Communication is one of the fundamental skills in the medical profession. The Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) is a widely used questionnaire to measure the attitudes of medical students toward learning communication skills. It has been adapted and translated into many languages. The objective of this study was to adapt and translate the CSAS into the Malay language and determine its psychometric properties in medical students. This is a cross-sectional study involving 218 first-year Universiti Teknologi MARA students. Content validation, cross-cultural adaptation, translation, and face validation of the 26-item CSAS were performed according to established guidelines. Principal component analysis with direct oblimin rotation was used to determine the underlying structure of the CSAS-Malay. The reliability was assessed using Cronbach's α coefficient for internal consistency and using the intraclass correlation coefficient for the test-retest reliability. Although the contents of the CSAS-Malay and the original version were conceptually equivalent, item 11 was removed during the content validation stage due to a low item content validity index (I-CVI < 1.00). Two subscales were derived from the remaining 25 items, which were the Positive Attitude Scale and the Negative Attitude Scale. Items 1 and 15 were removed due to poor factor loadings. The total variance explained by the final two-factor solution with three items removed was 30.8%. Cronbach's α coefficients for both the Positive and Negative Attitude Scales in the final questionnaire were 0.815 and 0.614, respectively. It also showed a good reproducibility with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values of 0.725-0.950 for all the items. This study provided preliminary information about the psychometric properties of the CSAS-Malay. The final 23-item questionnaire had a good construct validity, an acceptable internal consistency, and at least a moderate test-retest reproducibility. It can be used to assess the attitudes of medical students toward learning communication skills. Future research to improve the generalizability of the questionnaire should include medical students from other universities with diverse backgrounds.
沟通是医学专业的基本技能之一。沟通技能态度量表（CSAS）是一种广泛用于衡量医学生学习沟通技能态度的问卷。它已经被改编并翻译成多种语言。本研究的目的是将 CSAS 改编并翻译成马来语，并确定其在医学生中的心理测量特性。这是一项涉及 218 名玛拉工艺大学一年级学生的横断面研究。根据既定指南，对 26 项 CSAS 进行了内容验证、跨文化适应、翻译和表面验证。采用主成分分析与直接 Oblimin 旋转确定 CSAS-Malay 的潜在结构。使用 Cronbach's α 系数评估内部一致性的可靠性，使用组内相关系数评估重测信度的可靠性。尽管 CSAS-Malay 的内容与原始版本在概念上是等效的，但在内容验证阶段，由于项目内容有效性指数（I-CVI < 1.00）较低，项目 11 被删除。从剩余的 25 个项目中得出了两个子量表，即积极态度量表和消极态度量表。由于因子负荷不良，删除了项目 1 和 15。删除了三个项目后的最终两因素解决方案解释的总方差为 30.8%。最终问卷中积极和消极态度量表的 Cronbach's α 系数分别为 0.815 和 0.614。所有项目的组内相关系数（ICC）值为 0.725-0.950，表明其具有良好的再现性。本研究提供了 CSAS-Malay 心理测量特性的初步信息。最终的 23 项问卷具有良好的结构效度、可接受的内部一致性和至少中等的重测信度。它可用于评估医学生学习沟通技能的态度。未来的研究应包括来自不同背景的其他大学的医学生，以提高问卷的普遍性。
