Objective: Adapt the Primary Care Assessment Survey (PCAS) questionnaire to the Spanish language and determine its validity and reliability in identifying strengths and weaknesses in primary health care (PHC).
Methods: Study of the adaptation and validation of a questionnaire-survey. The suitable sample selected was 244 users of PHC services. The users were over 18 years of age and had had at least two institutional visits prior to being included in the study. The variables used were access, continuity, comprehensiveness, integration, clinical interaction, interpersonal treatment, and trust. Participation was confirmed through analysis of the distribution of responses; participation and patterns of nonresponse; the construct, through exploratory factorial analysis, using principal component analysis and the varimax rotation; the criterion, through the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient; and reliability using Cronbach's alfa and the intraclass correlation coefficient.
Results: The exploratory factorial analysis obtained 11 factors that explain 68.38% of the original variability. The criterion validity showed a sufficient correlation between the summary measure of the scale and the ad hoc variables Q33b (value of r x1x2 = 0.569; P = 0.01) and Q32 (value of r x1x2 = 0.600; P = 0.01). The scale obtained a coefficient of Cronbach's alfa of 0.94. The test-retest reliability (F [1 140] = 0.155 [P = 0.694]) demonstrated that the scale is stable over time.
Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the adapted version of the PCAS questionnaire make it possible to state that it is a valid and reliable scale to evaluate primary care from a standpoint of ongoing care based on the physician-patient relationship.