Evaluation of health research capacity strengthening trainings on individual level: validation of a questionnaire.
OBJECTIVE
In the field of global health, research capacity strengthening is becoming a common concept for defining and improving research competencies on individual, organizational, national and supranational level. However, HRCS activities often lack evaluation procedures to measure their impact and to ensure their quality. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a short questionnaire to evaluate trainings in the field of health research capacity strengthening (HRCS).


METHODS
The questionnaire was developed by an interdisciplinary research team and tested in four different training settings at the Mbeya Medical Research Center and Mbeya Referral Hospital, Tanzania. Construct validity of the questionnaire was tested based on 97 responses of the participants of four trainings.


RESULTS
Iterative checking of Cronbach's alpha of the subscales and exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor solution that differed from the original structure and subscales of the questionnaire. The instrument was adapted accordingly and consists now of four subscales with 19 items, three global impression items, and open questions for participants' comments and recommendations.


CONCLUSIONS
The result of the study is a short, validated questionnaire for the evaluation of HRCS trainings on the individual level. The tool can be applied both to measure the short-term effects of international health research capacity trainings and to ensure their quality. In the future, after collecting larger sample sizes, a confirmatory factor analysis should be done to further support the four factors.
Institut für Didaktik und Ausbildungsforschung in der Medizin, Klinikum der Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Johanna
J
Huber
Daniel
D
Bauer
Michael
M
Hoelscher
Jerry
J
Kapungu
Arne
A
Kroidl
Tessa
T
Lennemann
Lucas
L
Maganga
Oliver
O
Opitz
Omari
O
Salehe
Abbie
A
Sigauke
Martin R
MR
Fischer
Claudia
C
Kiessling
D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006281:Health Occupations / Q000193:education*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D008297:Male; D011361:Professional Competence; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D013636:Tanzania
evaluation; health services research; public health