Treatment-related empowerment: preliminary evaluation of a new measure in patients with advanced HIV disease.
This paper presents a novel method for assessing patients' perceptions of empowerment in the context of drug therapy, the Treatment-related Empowerment Scale (TES). The 10-item TES was specifically constructed to address components of communication, treatment choice, decision-making and satisfaction. Evaluation of the scale in a cross-sectional anonymous survey of 43 patients with advanced HIV infection revealed acceptable internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.85) and evidence of both criterion and discriminant validity. Patients who perceived a high degree of treatment-related empowerment were less likely to view doctors as overly reliant on prescribing medicines and reported lower rates of intentional noncompliance. The TES has scope as a concise measure of patients' degree of control over the selection and use of drug therapy, and may be of particular value for current combination therapy regimens.
Academic Department of Pharmacy, St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield, London, UK. david.webb@nph.npstm-tr.nthames.nhs.uk
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D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011209:Power, Psychological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires