KWAZO, a new instrument to assess the quality of service delivery in assistive technology provision.
OBJECTIVE
Currently no well validated instrument exists to assess the quality of the assistive technology delivery from the client's perspective. An instrument was developed called KWAZO, consisting of seven questions related to accessibility, knowledge, coordination, efficiency, flexibility and influence of the user. KWAZO, meaning "quality of care", can be completed by the clients without any assistance. In this study, the feasibility, internal consistency and convergent validity of KWAZO were examined.


METHODS
The data stem from a large monitoring study into non-use of and satisfaction with assistive technology (n = 4637) using a mailed questionnaire. Feasibility was tested by studying the rate of non response for each of the questions. To test convergent validity the KWAZO total score was compared to answers on a question about overall satisfaction with service delivery of D-QUEST.


RESULTS
Only few missing values were seen (3.1 - 7.5%). Cronbach's alpha was good (0.89), indicating that KWAZO reliably measures one concept. Convergent validity was shown by a moderately strong correlation between KWAZO and the D-QUEST question (0.54; p < 0.001). A difference of about 2.5 points seems to reflect a relevant difference in user satisfaction.


CONCLUSIONS
KWAZO is a new questionnaire to assess the quality of an assistive technology provision process from a client's perspective. KWAZO has decent measurement properties and its self-report format makes it an easy-to-use tool for assessment of the quality of assistive technology provision.
Dijcks
Béatrice P J
BP
iRv, Institute for Rehabilitation Research, Hoensbroek, The Netherlands. b.dijcks@irv.nl
Wessels
Roelof D
RD
de Vlieger
Suzanne L M
SL
Post
Marcel W M
MW
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D004867:Equipment Design; D004869:Equipment Safety; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires