Patient-Assessed Chronic Illness Care (PACIC) scenario in an Indian homeopathic hospital

Homeopathy research has focused on chronic conditions; however, the extent to which current homeopathic care is compliant with the Chronic Care Model (CCM) has been sparsely shown. As the Bengali Patient-Assessed Chronic Illness Care (PACIC)-20 was not available, the English questionnaire was translated and evaluated in a government homeopathic hospital in West Bengal, India. The translation was done in six steps, and approved by an expert committee. Face validity was tested by 15 people for comprehension. Test/retest reliability (reproducibility) was tested on 30 patients with chronic conditions. Internal consistency was tested in 377 patients suffering from various chronic conditions. The questionnaire showed acceptable test/retest reliability [intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.57–0.75; positive to strong positive correlations; p<0.0001] for all domains and the total score, strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s α=0.86 overall and 0.65–0.82 for individual subscales), and large responsiveness (1.11). The overall mean score percentage seemed to be moderate at 69.5±8.8%. Gender and presence of chronic conditions did not seem to vary significantly with PACIC-20 subscale scores (p>0.05); however, monthly household income had a significant influence (p<0.05) on the subscales except for “delivery system or practice design.” Overall, chronic illness care appeared to be quite promising and CCM-compliant. The psychometric properties of the Bengali PACIC-20 were satisfactory, rendering it a valid and reliable instrument for assessing chronic illness care among the patients attending a homeopathic hospital.