Initial Validation of an Analytical Tool to Support Decision-making on Chronic Illness Management

Abstract

Introduction: Support for decision-making in health facilitates self-management by persons with chronic illness (CI). Objective: Validate the Spanish- language version of DSAT - cdm: an analytical tool developed by Stacey (2006) to support decision-making on CI management. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study applies a systematic process that considers a number of aspects, such as translation – back-translation, simulation scenario development, training evaluators, simulated patient training and training for partici- pants. Sample: 15 professionals and two judges, obtaining 60 DSAT - cdm with the applied Spanish version (pre and post training). Results: The instrument showed acceptable reliability in application among judges and found improvement in the quality of decision-making support on the part of professionals. However, no results were obtained that contribute to concurrent criterion validity. Conclusions: This study is the first assessment of DSAT – cdm in Spanish. The main result indicates a change is detected in the performance of professionals to support the decision-making process of their patients. Yet, despite this favorable finding, further evaluation of the instrument is necessary.