Response process and test-retest reliability of the Context Assessment for Community Health tool in Vietnam.
BACKGROUND
The recently developed Context Assessment for Community Health (COACH) tool aims to measure aspects of the local healthcare context perceived to influence knowledge translation in low- and middle-income countries. The tool measures eight dimensions (organizational resources, community engagement, monitoring services for action, sources of knowledge, commitment to work, work culture, leadership, and informal payment) through 49 items.


OBJECTIVE
The study aimed to explore the understanding and stability of the COACH tool among health providers in Vietnam.


METHODS
To investigate the response process, think-aloud interviews were undertaken with five community health workers, six nurses and midwives, and five physicians. Identified problems were classified according to Conrad and Blair's taxonomy and grouped according to an estimation of the magnitude of the problem's effect on the response data. Further, the stability of the tool was examined using a test-retest survey among 77 respondents. The reliability was analyzed for items (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and percent agreement) and dimensions (ICC and Bland-Altman plots).


RESULTS
In general, the think-aloud interviews revealed that the COACH tool was perceived as clear, well organized, and easy to answer. Most items were understood as intended. However, seven prominent problems in the items were identified and the content of three dimensions was perceived to be of a sensitive nature. In the test-retest survey, two-thirds of the items and seven of eight dimensions were found to have an ICC agreement ranging from moderate to substantial (0.5-0.7), demonstrating that the instrument has an acceptable level of stability.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that the Vietnamese translation of the COACH tool is generally perceived to be clear and easy to understand and has acceptable stability. There is, however, a need to rephrase and add generic examples to clarify some items and to further review items with low ICC.
Faculty of Social Science - Behaviours and Health Education, Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi, Vietnam.|International Maternal and Child Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; dmd@hsph.edu.vn.
Duong M
DM
Duc
International Maternal and Child Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.|Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK.
Anna
A
Bergström
International Maternal and Child Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Leif
L
Eriksson
International Maternal and Child Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Katarina
K
Selling
Faculty of Social Science - Behaviours and Health Education, Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Bui
B
Thi Thu Ha
School of Education, Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden.|Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Lars
L
Wallin
D000328:Adult; D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014744:Vietnam
context assessment; implementation science; knowledge translation; reliability; response process; test–retest; think-aloud interview; validity