title: Development and validation of the Humanitarian Aid Difficulty Scale for Japanese healthcare workers.
abstract: Few studies have investigated deployment-related experiences of healthcare workers dispatched for medical humanitarian aid or attempted to assess their difficult living and working environments. This is the first study to develop and validate a scale to measure these kinds of difficulties, in 264 Japanese healthcare workers. The Humanitarian Aid Difficulty Scale was developed in three stages. First, an item pool was generated based on literature and expert reviews. The scale was then tested in a pilot study. Reliability and validity were identified through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. The scale consisted of 23 items across five factors based on exploratory factor analysis (cooperation, health status, infrastructure, culture and customs, and supplies and equipment). The total variance explained was 60.7%. Reliability of the five factors was acceptable and validity was supported by confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach's alpha for the scale was 0.87. The scale may enable evaluation of the level of difficulty of the living and working environments of Japanese healthcare workers in medical humanitarian aid who are at a greater risk of distress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and International Health Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Saga, Japan.|Japan Self Defense Forces, Hospital Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Norihito
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Noguchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Trauma Surgery and Surgical Critical Care, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Saga, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Saga, Japan.
authors.forename: Chisato
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shimanoe
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and International Health Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Saga, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shinchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D012066:Relief Work; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014838:Volunteers / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: disaster; healthcare worker; humanitarian aid; instrument development; occupational stress; secondary traumatization