Validation of the Slovenian version of patient assessment of chronic illness care (PACIC) in patients with coronary heart disease.

The Chronic Care Model (CCM) is a conceptual framework that supports the evidence-based proactive and planned care of chronic diseases. Our aim was to validate a Slovenian translation of Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (PACIC)--a self-reported instrument designed to measure the extent to which patients with chronic illnesses receive care congruent with CCM--on a sample of patients with coronary heart disease. Secondary analysis of patients' evaluation of general practice care (EPA Cardio study) was done in patients with coronary heart disease in Slovenia. Patients completed a written questionnaire, which included the instrument for assessing chronic illness care (PACIC), the EUROPEP questionnaire and demographical data. Internal consistency was expressed in terms of Cronbach's alpha. Reliability was expressed as the intra class correlation coefficient (ICC). Correlation between PACIC and EUROPEP was considered as a measure of construct validity. Factor analysis was done to identify number and types of domains in the instrument. Questionnaires of 843 patients were analysed. The mean age was 68.2 (SD 11.1) years, 34.6% of participants were female. 32.7% of PACIC questionnaires were not completely fulfilled. The internal consistency of the entire questionnaire assessed by Cronbach's alpha was 0.953 and reliability was 0.937. Construct validity was confirmed with important and significant correlation between PACIC and EUROPEP questionnaire (Spearman's correlation coefficient = 0.60, p < 0.001). Principal component factor analysis identifies two major factors which we labeled according to the PACIC domains as "Patient activation, decision support and problem solving" and "Goal settings and coordination". A translated and validated Slovenian version of PACIC questionnaire is now available. Further research on its validity in other groups of chronically ill patients and the use of instrument for monitoring changes of chronic care over time is recommended.