The Turkish adaptation of consultation and relational empathy measure

Objective: The aim of the study was to adapt the Consultation and Relational Empathy Scale into Turkish and to evaluate its validity and reliability. Materials and Method: This study, designed as an adaptation, validity, and reliability study, employed a methodological approach. The scale was translated into Turkish using forward and backward translation procedures. After obtaining necessary permissions and ethics committee approval, independent translators translated the measurement tool into Turkish. Content validity was evaluated by a committee of experts, followed by a pilot study conducted after back translation The scale was finalized and administered to 317 individuals admitted to Akdeniz University Hospital. Content validity was assessed using the Scope Validity Index, internal reliability was determined using Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, construct validity was evaluated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis, and sample size was assessed using Item Total Item Correlation, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient, and Barlett's Sphericity Test.Results: The average age of the 300 participants was 39.88 ± 14.95 years. 29.3% of the participants were between 18-30 years old (n=88), 36.3% were between 31-43 years old (n=109), 18.0% were between 44-56 years old (n=54), and 16.3% were 57 years old and above (n=49). The majority of the participants were women (58.7% n=176). As a result of the evaluation of the results with KMO and Barlett's test of sphericity, it was seen that the sample size was sufficient and the data were suitable for factor analysis. In order to determine the reliability of the scale in terms of internal consistency, Cronbach Alpha (0.973) and McDonald Omega reliability coefficients (0.973) were calculated and it was determined that the scale provided reliability in terms of internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that all items met the minimum cutoff score of 0.32 for factor loading values. Principal axis analysis revealed a structure with an eigenvalue greater than one, and the total variance and slope accumulation graph supported a single-factor structure. Since the item-total score correlation coefficient of all items in our study was >0.816, internal consistency was found to be high. No significant relationship was found between the demographic characteristics of the patients (age, gender, marital status, educational status, income status, frequency of examination, presence of chronic disease, number of people living together at home) and the Consultation and Relational Empathy scale scores.Conclusion: In this study, in which the Turkish adaptation of the CARE measurement tool developed by Mercer et al. and its validity and reliability in Turkey were investigated, it was concluded that the measurement tool has high reliability and high validity.Keywords: Empathy, Validity, Reliability, Family Medicine, CARE scale