A hindrance to proper health care: psychometric development and validation of opiophobia questionnaire among doctors in Pakistan

What is it about?

In current times the number of patients with chronic and acute pain are increasing steadfastly. One preferred method for relieving the ailment of such patients is through opioid based analgesics. Nonetheless, due to the persistent fear of doctors in prescribing such medicines is a major hinderance resulting in suffering of many patients. The present study attempted to develop a validated instrument which can accurately measure the severity of opiophobia in doctors, which can lead to helping such doctors overcome this fear. The study initially employed interview-based technique on a sample of 20 doctors (10 males, 10 females), with age range between 21-53 years (M=29.5, SD=9.06), to gather information on the concept of opiophobia and the main concerns doctors have in prescribing such method. This data along with previous literature was then used in generating an item pool for the scale. The generated item pool was evaluated by a team of Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) for ensuring the content related integrity of the items for the purpose of content validity. Following that, data was collected on the prototype scale from a sample of 100 doctors (50 males, 50 females) with age range between 21-53 years (M=29.5, SD=9.06) from numerous hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan, through an online survey. This data was analyzed using Maximum Likelihood method for Exploratory Factor Analysis, followed by Velicer’s Minimum Average Partial method for confirming the factorial structure of the scale. A two-factor structure was achieved with 11 items in the first factor and 4 items in the second factor, all with loadings above .3, along with two reverse items. Further analysis for reliability and inter item correlation were also conducted. The scale can be used for measuring the severity level of opiophobia in doctor’s population. This can lead to identification and supplementing of proper counselling and therapies accordingly in order to reduce such irrational fears. The can be helpful for the patients suffering from chronic and acute pain to receive proper treatment. Additionally, the scale though for now not tested but can be used with other populations as well. As it has been noted in the literature that not only doctors but majority of the general population equally suffers from opiophobia, thus refusing treatments including opioid based medicines for themselves and their family members.

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