title: [A Brief Homophobia Scale in Medical Students From Two Universities: Results of A Refinement Process].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The process of evaluating measurement scales is an ongoing procedure that requires revisions and adaptations according to the characteristics of the participants. The Homophobia Scale of seven items (EHF-7) has showed acceptable performance in medical students attending to two universities in Colombia. However, performance of some items was poor and could be removed, with an improvement in the psychometric findings of items retained.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To review the psychometric functioning and refine the content of EHF-7 among medical students from two Colombian universities.
  
  
  METHODS
  A group of 667 students from the first to tenth semester participated in the research. Theirs ages were between 18 and 34 (mean, 20.9±2.7) years-old, and 60.6% were females. Cronbach alpha (α) and omega of McDonald (Ω) were calculated as indicators of reliability and to refine the scale, an exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  EHF-7 showed α=.793 and Ω=.796 and a main factor that explained 45.2% of the total variance. EFA and CFA suggested the suppression of three items. The four-item version (EHF-4) reached an α=.770 and Ω=.775, with a single factor that accounted for 59.7% of the total variance. CFA showed better indexes (χ2=3.622; df=1; P=.057; Root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA)=.063, 90% CI, .000-.130; Comparative Fit Indices (CFI)=.998; Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI)=.991).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EHF-4 shows high internal consistency and a single dimension that explains more than 50% of the total variance. Further studies are needed to confirm these observations, that can be taken as preliminary.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación del Comportamiento Humano (Human Behavioral Research Institute), Bogotá, Colombia; Programa de Medicina, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Magdalena, Santa Marta, Colombia. Electronic address: mpoarias@comportamientohumano.org.
authors.forename: Adalberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Campo-Arias
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación del Comportamiento Humano (Human Behavioral Research Institute), Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Edwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Herazo
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación del Comportamiento Humano (Human Behavioral Research Institute), Bogotá, Colombia; Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, Colombia.
authors.forename: Heidi Celina
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Oviedo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003105:Colombia; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D063509:Homophobia / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Análisis factorial; Confiabilidad y validez; Estudiantes de Medicina; Estudios de validación; Factor analysis; Homofobia; Homophobia; Medical students; Reproducibility of results; Validation studies