The measure of processes of care (MPOC): validation of the Dutch translation

Aim The objective was to validate the Dutch translation of the Canadian measure of processes of care (MPOC) questionnaire for use in children's rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands. MPOC consists of 56 items (assessing five domains) and was designed to find out what parents of children with chronic health problems think of the services they and their child receive and to measure the extent to which these services are family-centred.

Methods The Canadian validation procedures were followed, consisting of construct and concurrent validation and reliability analyses. Participants were parents of 427 children aged 1-18 years recruited through nine children's rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands.

Results The construct validity of the Dutch version of MPOC (MPOC-NL) was examined with confirmative analyses of the scale structure. These analyses all supported the construct validity of MPOC-NL. MPOC-NL showed adequate internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.80 to 0.95. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranged from 0.79 to 0.94, which demonstrated good stability of MPOC-NL. The Spearman correlations between MPOC-NL scores and satisfaction questions ranged from 0.39 to 0.73, and thus supported the construct validity of MPOC-NL. Correlations between MPOC-NL scores and a question about parents' stress in relation to services received were moderately negative (r(s) = -0.28 to -0.39).

Conclusion The construct and concurrent validity of MPOC-NL was shown by confirmative analyses of the original Canadian scale structure, and by modest Spearman correlations between MPOC-NL scores and satisfaction and stress variables. MPOC-NL is internally consistent and reliable.