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Development and responsiveness of a scale to measure clinicians’ attitudes to people with mental illness (medical student version)
Author(s) -
Kassam A.,
Glozier N.,
Leese M.,
Henderson C.,
Thornicroft G.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2010.01562.x
Subject(s) - mental illness , concordance , scale (ratio) , clinical psychology , mental health , stigma (botany) , psychiatry , intervention (counseling) , psychology , medicine , psychometrics , physics , quantum mechanics
Kassam A, Glozier N, Leese M, Henderson C, Thornicroft G. Development and responsiveness of a scale to measure clinicians’ attitudes to people with mental illness (medical student version). Objective: We report the rationale, reliability, validity and responsiveness studies of the Mental Illness: Clinicians’ Attitudes (MICA) Scale, a 16‐item scale designed to measure attitudes of health care professionals towards people with mental illness. Method: Items were generated through focus groups with service users, carers, medical students and trainee psychiatrists. Psychometric testing was completed in a number of student samples. The responsiveness of the scale was tested after a 1.5 h mental illness stigma related intervention with medical students. Results: The MICA scale showed good internal consistency, α = 0.79. The test–retest reliability (concordance) was 0.80 (95% CI: 0.68–0.91). The standardised response mean for the scale was 0.4 (95% CI 0.02–0.8) after a mental illness related stigma intervention. Conclusion: The MICA scale is a responsive, reliable and valid tool, which can be used in medical education and mental health promotion settings and studies.