Brief communication: The Chinese Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale-Revised (C-MISS-R): Development and validation

Background: The Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale ( MISS) measures patient consultation satisfaction. We validated a translated short-form of the original MISS on Hong Kong Chinese women with breast cancer. Methods: The four highest scoring MISS Cognitive and Affective sub-scales items were administered in Chinese (C-MISS) to 224 female out patients. Phrasing revisions (C-MISS-R) were tested on 82 women. Random split tested factor structure stability. Convergent, divergent and criterion validation against other instruments was performed on 405 women. Results: Two-factors accounted for 61.7% of variance but factor loadings differed from the original. Phrasing revision increased Affective sub-scale item - item correlations exceeding 0.3 - 64%. Two factors matching those of the original MISS, accounting for 65.2% of variance, explained 36.6% ( Cognitive) and 28.8% ( Affective) of variance, respectively. Alpha was 0.84, 0.74 and 0.83 for the Cognitive and Affective sub-scales and total respectively. Correlations of difficulties with treatment decision making ( r = - 0.298), Self-efficacy ( r = 0.194), optimism ( r = 0.33), psychological morbidity ( r = - 209), marital status, education and age indicated acceptable validity. Test-retest reliability was 0.410. Discussion: The Chinese MISS-Revised (C-MISS-R) has suitable factor structure and psychometric properties for use in consultation studies among Chinese female populations. Further validation is needed for males.