The present paper provides a review of research on medical students' attitudes to people with intellectual disabilities. The attitudes of medical students warrant empirical attention because their future work may determine people with intellectual disabilities' access to healthcare and exposure to health inequalities. An electronic search of Embase, Ovid MEDLINE(R), PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science was completed to identify papers published up to August 2013. Twenty-four studies were identified, most of which evaluated the effects of pedagogical interventions on students' attitudes. Results suggested that medical students' attitudes to people with intellectual disabilities were responsive to interventions. However, the evidence is restricted due to research limitations, including poor measurement, self-selection bias, and the absence of control groups when evaluating interventions. Thus, there is a dearth of high-quality research on this topic, and past findings should be interpreted with caution. Future research directions are provided.
ObjectivesThe UK's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme uses the Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-9; Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001, J. Gen. Intern. Med., 16, 606) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006, Arch. Intern. Med., 166, 1092) to assess patients' symptoms of depression and anxiety respectively. Data are typically collected via telephone or face-to-face; however, no study has statistically investigated whether the questionnaires' items operate equivalently across these modes of data collection. This study aimed to address this omission.Methods & ResultsQuestionnaire data from patients registered with an IAPT service in London (N = 23,672) were examined. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that unidimensional factor structures adequately matched observed face-to-face and telephone data for the PHQ-9 and GAD-7. Invariance analyses revealed that while the PHQ-9 had equivalent factor loadings and latent means across data collection methods, the GAD-7 had equivalent factor loadings but unequal latent means. In support of the scales' convergent validity, positive associations between scores on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 emerged.ConclusionsWith the exception of the GAD-7's latent means, the questionnaires' factor loadings and latent means were equivalent. This suggests that clinicians may meaningfully compare PHQ-9 data collected face-to-face and by telephone; however, such comparisons with the GAD-7 should be done with caution.Practitioner pointsThe PHQ-9 and GAD-7's factor loadings were equivalent across data collection methods.Only the PHQ-9's latent means were equivalent across data collection methods.Clinicians may be confident collecting PHQ-9 data by telephone and face-to-face and, then, comparing such data.Caution is recommended when determining clinical effectiveness using telephone and face-to-face GAD-7 data.More psychometric research is warranted.
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