Delphi Technique in the validation process of the national application of the Questionnaire for Primary Care Assessment (QualiAB)

Abstract

This article aims to describe the use of the Delphi Technique in a process of updating and validating the content of the Primary Care Services Quality Assessment Questionnaire (QualiAB) for national application. In this study, 19 experts with experience in research in health evaluation, care and management in Primary Health Care (PHC) agreed to participate. A revised version of the QualiAB instrument with 105 indicators was submitted for evaluation as to its relevance, national applicability and acceptability. The modified Delphi Technique was performed in two rounds. The response rate of experts in the first round was 73.6%, 40 indicators were accepted and 65 did not reach consensus, of which 54 obtained suggestions to change the question and/or indicator. In the second, the response rate was 92.8%, and 65 indicators were resent with incorporation of changes, of which six were accepted. Of the remaining 59, 51 obtained suggestions for change. The modified Delphi Technique contributed to the improvement of the QualiAB instrument as an intermediate step in an iterative validation process. However, the performance in two rounds proved to be insufficient to validate the organizational quality indicators in view of the scope and diversity of the actions performed by the PHC services.