title: A preliminary study for the development of a scale to assess perceptions about physicians.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to develop a scale that can be used to assess the perceptions of the community about physicians and their medical practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  A Likert-type scale was developed and applied to 220 subjects twice within a 7-10 day interval. Internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability were used as indicators of the reliability of the scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Chronbach's alpha values obtained from two reliability tests were 0.82 and 0.83, respectively, and correlation coefficient between the two tests was 0.61. The mean value of items indicated that perceptions about physicians were between "negative" and "neutral".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reliability of this scale was found to be at acceptable levels and therefore it can be used to assess the perceptions of people from different social classes about physicians.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Department, Medical Faculty, Ataturk University, Halk Sagligi Anabilim Dali, 25240-Erzurum, Turkey. tinandi@atauni.edu.tr
authors.forename: Tacettin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inandi
authors.forename: Nalan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sahin
authors.forename: Asuman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guraksin
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012923:Social Class; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey