Analyzing the Psychometric Properties of the Short Form-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire in Patients with Obesity.

PURPOSE: The Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire is a valuable and easy-to-use tool for the measurement of quality of life in patients with obesity. To become a widely used tool, the questionnaire must be validated in many different contexts. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the construct validity and reliability of the SF-36 questionnaire among patients with obesity in Bahrain. METHODOLOGY: The 36-item questionnaire was administered to a study cohort scheduled to undergo bariatric surgery at the Bahrain Defence Force Hospital in Bahrain. Demographic data were extracted. Principal component analysis was used to extract component factors. Factor analysis was used to determine construct validity and fit. The Cronbach's alpha value of the extracted factors was used to determine the internal consistency reliability. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 19.0 and IBM AMOS version 22.0. RESULTS: Most of the participants were female with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 43.24 kg/m2. A six-factor solution explaining 52.31% of variance was generated. The global fit parameter estimates indicated that the suggested model exhibited an acceptable-to-good fit. Overall, the internal consistency reliability estimate of the SF-36 questionnaire was greater than 0.70. CONCLUSION: The identified six-factor model of the SF-36 questionnaire is a valuable tool for the measurement of quality of life among patients with obesity in Bahrain.

Cross-cultural challenges for assessing medical professionalism among clerkship physicians in a Middle Eastern country (Bahrain): feasibility and psychometric properties of multisource feedback.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to design, implement, and evaluate the feasibility and reliability of a multisource feedback (MSF) system to assess interns in their clerkship year in the Middle Eastern culture, the Kingdom of Bahrain. METHOD: The study was undertaken in the Bahrain Defense Force Hospital, a military teaching hospital in the Kingdom of Bahrain. A total of 21 interns (who represent the total population of the interns for the given year) were assessed in this study. All of the interns were rotating through our hospital during their year-long clerkship rotation. The study sample consisted of nine males and 12 females. Each participating intern was evaluated by three groups of raters, eight medical intern colleagues, eight senior medical colleagues, and eight coworkers from different departments. RESULTS: A total of 21 interns (nine males and 12 females) were assessed in this study. The total mean response rates were 62.3%. A factor analysis was conducted that found that the data on the questionnaire grouped into three factors that counted for 76.4% of the total variance. These three factors were labeled as professionalism, collaboration, and communication. Reliability analysis indicated that the full instrument scale had high internal consistency (Cronbach's α 0.98). The generalizability coefficients for the surveys were estimated to be 0.78. CONCLUSION: Based on our results and analysis, we conclude that the MSF tool we used on the interns rotating in their clerkship year within our Middle Eastern culture provides an effective method of evaluation because it offers a reliable, valid, and feasible process.