Validation of opening minds scale for health ca re providers (OMS - HC)

Abstract

Abstract Background: Mental illness stigma acts as a major barrier that may results in disparities in access, treatment, and outcome. Scales designed to assess stigmatising attitudes towards those with mental i llness among health care providers are necessary to evaluate programs designed to reduce that stigma. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the internal reliability and external validity of the Opening Minds Scale for Health Care Providers (OM S - HC)) among health staff in a Tertiary Healthcare Centre. Materials and Method : 308 participants from the Jos University Teaching Hospital answered a self - administered questionnaire, i.e Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill (CAMI) scale, and the o pening mind scale for Health care providers (OMS - HC). Coefficient alphas were computed to obtain internal consistency estimates of reliability for the CAMI subscales and OMS - HC . Correlations of OMS - HC scores with CAMI scores were calculated and compared to evaluate concurrent validity. Results: The result showed internal consistency of OMS - HC, The cronbach’s alpha was 0.985 reflecting high level of internal consistency within the 20 item scale. The concurrent validity scores were: 0.983 and 0.990 for Pears on and spearman correlation coefficient respectively (P<0.001). Conclusion : The findings from our study showed a good and strong correlation between OMS - HC and the chosen gold standard (CAMI). Hence OMS is valid and reliable, suitable for clinical and res earch purposes