Translation and psychometric evaluation of the Swedish version of the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale

Interprofessional education (IPE) is widely accepted worldwide, as a key part of training for health professionals and critical to an effective, patient-centred healthcare system. Several tools have been developed to evaluate IPE programmes and interventions globally. Many of the widely-used tools have been successfully adapted to suit specific cohorts and different languages; the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS), however, has not yet been translated and validated for use in Sweden. The aim of this study was to translate the IEPS into Swedish and validate the psychometric properties of this new version. The 12-item IEPS underwent translation into Swedish and back-translation into English by suitable independent translators to ensure items retained their meaning. The new Swedish version was completed by 164 medical and nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy students on clinical placements in Stockholm. Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) and Oblique Oblimin Rotation confirmed a three-factor structure, that explained 77.4% of variance. The new 10-item Swedish version IEPS displayed good internal consistency with an overall Cronbach’s alpha of a =.88 and subscale values of.89,.88 and.66. The exclusion of two-items limits the transferability of this scale; however, the factor makeup was very similar to the original 12-item English version. It is suspected that minor differences were due to unavoidable deviations in meaning following translation (i.e. certain English words have no equivalent in Swedish). Nevertheless, the results imply that the Swedish version of the IEPS is a valid and reliable tool for assessing students’ perceptions and attitudes towards IPE within the Swedish health education system.