Validation of the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (SE-12-Gr) Assessing the Healthcare Professionals’ Self-Reported Communication Skills with Older Healthcare Users in Greece

ABSTRACT

Patients’ satisfaction with their interaction with the healthcare providers has been found to correlate with adherence to therapeutic plans and better health outcomes. Healthcare providers are experiencing barriers when communicating with specific population subgroups, such as people with low health literacy, low education, and older age. Enhancing the communication skills of the healthcare providers working with older adults could facilitate their interaction with the patients. This study presents the validation of the Self-efficacy-12 (SE-12) in Greek. This is an instrument measuring healthcare providers’ self-efficacy of communication skills used during their interaction with older patients. A sample of 230 healthcare providers working with older adults participated in the study. The scale showed good psychometric properties (S-CVI=.97, Cronbach a = .95, ICC = .81). A medium to high correlation was found with the generalized self-efficacy questionnaire. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) yielded two factors (“Self-efficacy in communication skills and strategies” and “Self-efficacy of successful interaction”) with good psychometric properties. The SE-12-GR is a brief, valid, and reliable tool for assessing self-efficacy of communication skills and it could be integrated as part of the health literacy tools for healthcare providers working with older people in Greece.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank, the translators Ms Eleni Margioti, Mr Michalis Lavdas, Ms Nikoletta Geronikola, Ms Maria Achilleos, all healthcare professionals who participated in all phases of the study and the experts’ team that assessed the content validity of the scale.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was fully funded by the Hellenic Mediterranean University as part of a postdoctoral research fellowship of the first author.