Development and validation of a Japanese version of the Patient Centred Assessment Method and its user guide: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study was to develop the Japanese version of the Patient Centred Assessment Method (PCAM) and its user guide. The secondary objective was to examine the validity and reliability in the primary care setting. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Three family physician teaching clinics located in urban residential areas in Tokyo, Japan. PARTICIPANTS: Patients who were aged 20 years or older, and who had an appointment with physicians at the three participating clinics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient complexity measured by PCAM and complexity/burden level measured by a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). RESULTS: Although confirmatory factor analysis using a model described in a previous study revealed that the indices did not meet the criteria for good fit, exploratory factor analysis revealed a new three-factor structure of ‘Personal well-being,’ ‘Social interaction’ and ‘Needs for care/service.’ Cronbach’s alpha of PCAM was 0.86. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients between PCAM scores and VAS scores were 0.51 for complexity (p<0.001) and 0.41 for burden (p<0.001). There were 42 patients (14.3% of total patients) with PCAM scores greater than its mean of 16.5 but with complexity VAS scores less than its mean of 20.8. CONCLUSIONS: The Japanese version of PCAM and its user guide were developed through Japanese translation and cultural adaptation by cognitive debriefing. PCAM is a valid and reliable tool to assess patient complexity in the primary care settings in Japan. Additionally, although the correlation between total PCAM scores and complexity/burden as assessed by VAS was moderate, PCAM can more precisely identify patient complexity than skilled physician’s intuition.