Treatment-related empowerment: preliminary evaluation of a new measure in patients with advanced HIV disease

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Abstract
This paper presents a novel method for assessing patients' perceptions of empowerment in the context of drug therapy, the Treatment-related Empowerment Scale (TES). The 10-item TES was specifically constructed to address components of communication, treatment choice, decision-making and satisfaction. Evaluation of the scale in a cross-sectional anonymous survey of 43 patients with advanced HIV infection revealed acceptable internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.85) and evidence of both criterion and discriminant validity. Patients who perceived a high degree of treatment-related empowerment were less likely to view doctors as overly reliant on prescribing medicines and reported lower rates of intentional non-compliance. The TES has scope as a concise measure of patients' degree of control over the selection and use of drug therapy, and may be of particular value for current combination therapy regimens.

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