Cross-cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Malay Version of the Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey (PREMIS-Malay) Tool in a Sample of Malaysian Primary Healthcare Providers

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health concern that demands a multidisciplinary healthcare approach. Primary healthcare providers (PHCPs) hold a vital position as they are at the forefront of preventing, detecting, and managing IPV within the healthcare setting. This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Malay version of the Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey (PREMIS-Malay) tool, which was previously developed for measuring physicians’ knowledge, attitudes, and preparedness to manage IPV.

The cross-cultural adaptation of the PREMIS involved content validation among health experts (n = 8), forward-backward translation by bilingual translators (n = 4), face validation (pre-testing) and cognitive debriefing among PHCPs (n = 6). An online survey was administered to a sample of Malaysian PHCPs (n = 190) to assess the psychometric properties (construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability) of the PREMIS-Malay.

Principal component analysis (PCA) of the modified “Opinions” items found a seven-factor structure (workplace/self-efficacy, staff preparation, legal requirements, staff constraints, alcohol/drugs, IPV enquiry/screening, victim understanding) accounting for 70.57% of the total variance. The “Background” and “Opinions” subscales indicated acceptable to good levels of internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha ranged between 0.59 and 0.98. The intraclass correlation coefficients of these subscales ranged from 0.52 to 0.85, indicating a satisfactory to high level of test-retest reliability.

This study provides evidence that the PREMIS-Malay demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties for evaluating PHCPs’ preparedness to address IPV. Future validation studies to support the use of this instrument using larger and more representative samples are recommended.