Table 1.
Measures
| Topic | Subcategory | Number of items | Scoring | Alpha | Reference | Description of questions/examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Sociodemographic characteristics | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | Age, gender, race, specialty |
| 2. Practice characteristics | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | specialty, number and type of gene tests ordered, experience with patient care |
| 3. Information giving | a. Topics discussed | 5 | 5-point scale: always to never | n/a | 5 self-developed statements on how often topics are discussed when providing cancer genetic counselling | e.g. ‘Benefits and limitations of close cancer surveillance’ |
| b. Skills perception | 13 | 13–65 (5-point scale: strongly agree to strongly disagree). A higher total score means a more positive perception of one’s info giving skills | 0.88 | 10 items are adapted from an unpublished questionnaire used in the radiotherapy setting and 3 items are based on Keating et al. [4] | e.g. ‘I am comfortable discussing hereditary cancer issues with my patients’ | |
| 4. Decision-making | a. Attitude towards patient autonomy | 14 | See Table 3 | Adaptation of the Ideals of Patient Autonomy Scale (Stiggelbout et al 2012) [30]. Our adapted version includes 3 subscales (see Table 3) | e.g. ‘If the patient does not want to receive information about risks, the healthcare provider should respect this’ | |
| b. Attitude towards responsibility | 1 | 5-point scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) | Self-developed. This item is added to the adapted IPAS in Table 3 | ‘It is my responsibility to help a patient make a decision about genetic testing’ | ||
| c. Skills perception | 6 | 5-point scale (difficult to easy) | Self-developed | Rate the difficulty of several communication tasks related to decision-making, e.g. ‘involving the patient in the decision’ | ||
| 5. Enabling disease and treatment related behaviors | a. Attitude towards responsibility | 2 | 5-point scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) | Self-developed | e.g. ‘It is my responsibility to discuss preventive behaviors such as prophylactic surgeries and/or regular cancer screening’ | |
| b. Attitude towards future developments | 2 | 5-point scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) | Self-developed and one item based on Shields et al. [5] | e.g. ‘I am optimistic that genetic research will lead to significant improvements in the treatment of complex traits’ | ||
| 6. Managing emotions | a. Skills perception | 7 | 5-point scale (difficult to easy) | Self-developed | Rate the difficulty of several communication tasks related to managing emotions, e.g. ‘preparing the patient for negative emotions’ | |
| b. Attitude | 2 | 5-point scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) | Self-developed | e.g. ‘It is my responsibility to manage emotions that patients experience during genetic counseling’ | ||
| 7. Education | a. Received training | 7 | 2 Yes/No, 2 multiple-options, 2 open questions, 1 statement with 5-point scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) | Questions based on Shield et al. [5] and on remarks in Zon et al. [7] | e.g. ‘Did you receive specific training about how to communicate with patients about hereditary cancer?’ | |
| b. Use of risk models | 3 | 2 Yes/No, 1 multiple-options | Questions based on remarks in Zon et al. [7] | e.g. ‘Which web-based risk assessment models do you use?’ | ||
| 8. Knowledge | a. General perception | 4 | 4-point scale (Very good to very poor) | Based on Klitzman et al. [10] | e.g. ‘My knowledge about hereditary cancer genetics is…’ | |
| b. Confidence | 2 | 5-point scale (Strongly agree to strongly disagree) | Based on Shields et al. [5] | e.g. ‘I am confident in my ability to interpret a variant genetic test result’ | ||
| c. Objective knowledge | 9 | 3-point scale (True/False/Do not know) | Several items are derived from Erblich et al. [31] and 3 items are derived from a study among FAP-patients of one of the authors (Douma) |