title: Psychometric evaluation of the Spanish version of CONNECT: a measure of continuity of care in mental health services.
abstract: This article provides the results of the psychometric testing of the Spanish version of CONNECT(-S), a measure of continuity of care in mental health services. CONNECT-S is a multidimensional measure designed for use with seriously mentally ill respondents. Consisting of 12 scales and one single-item indicator, it addresses qualities of interaction in current relationships between mental health service providers and consumers in five conceptual domains: (1) practitioner knowledge of their clients, (2) creating flexibility, (3) practitioner availability, (4) practitioner co-ordination, and (5) smoothing transitions. One-hundred-and-fifty participants took part in the study. Participants were recruited from mental health outpatient clinics in both the Puerto Rican (n = 109) and the San Antonio (n = 41) samples. Internal consistency for scales in a combined site estimate ranged from 0.68 to 0.96. Test-retest reliability ranged from fair to substantial in all but one scale. Concurrent validity hypotheses based on a priori predictions were mostly supported. The Spanish translation and adaptation of CONNECT-S provided sound psychometric results across both sites. CONNECT-S addresses the gap in measurement of continuity of care for the two largest US Latino subgroups, Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans; and provides an encouraging starting point for a measure that is both relevant and culturally sensitive.
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Sciences Research Institute and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, San Juan. lchavez@rcm.upr.edu
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Chavez
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Canino
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Shrout
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barrio
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Ware
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000592:standards*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services; D017058:Mexican Americans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011594:Psychometrics; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results