Brazilian version of the Quality of Care Scale: the perspective of people with disabilities

OBJECTIVE: To analyze evidence of the validity and reliability of a Brazilian Portuguese version of the Quality of Care Scale from the perspective of people with physical and intellectual disabilities. METHODS: There were 162 people with physical disabilities and 156 with intellectual disabilities from Porto Alegre and metropolitan region, who participated in the study in 2008. Classical psychometrics was used to independently analyze the two samples. Hypotheses for evidence of criterion validity (concurrent type) were tested with the Mann-Whitney test for non-normal distributions. Principal components analysis was used to explore factorial models. Evidence of reliability was calculated with Cronbach alpha for the scales and subscales. Test-retest reliability was analyzed for individuals with intellectual disabilities through intra-class correlation coefficient and the Willcoxon test. RESULTS: The principal components in the group with physical disabilities replicated the original model presented as a solution to the international project data. Evidence of discriminant validity and test-retest reliability was found. CONCLUSIONS: The transcultural factor model found within the international sample project seems appropriate for the samples investigated in this study, especially the physical disabilities group. Depression, pain, satisfaction with life and disability may play a mediating role in the evaluation of quality of care. Additional research is needed to add to evidence of the validity of the instruments.