Adaptation and psychometric properties of the Mental Illness Clinicians’ Attitudes Scale (MICA v4) to Brazilian Portuguese and Latin-American Spanish

OBJECTIVE To describe the translation and adaptation of the Mental Illness Clinicians' Attitudes Scale version 4 (MICA v4) to Spanish and Portuguese. METHODS The questionnaire was administered to primary care physicians (PCPs) from four Latin-American countries, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Cuba. The validation process included four phases: 1) translation of the questionnaire to Spanish and Portuguese; 2) assessment of the face validity; 3) assessment of reliability; and 4) evaluation of construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). RESULTS The study sample comprised 427 PCPs. The mean age of the Spanish sample (n= 252) was 40.1 (S.D=9.7) and from the Portuguese sample (n= 150) was 40.2 (S.D=10.9). The two models demonstrated "appropiate" internal reliability, the omega total was 0.91 in the Spanish sample and 0.89 in the Portuguese sample. The CFA of both questionnaires had an appropriate fit for a three factors model (Portuguese: CFI=0.927; TLI=0.913; RMSEA= 0.066; Spanish: CFI=0.945; TLI=0.935; RMSEA= 0.068). CONCLUSIONS The Latin-American versions of the MICA v4 in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese have appropriate psychometric properties, good internal consistency, and are applicable and acceptable to the Latin-American context. The instrument proved its validity to produce data concerning stigmatizing attitudes from health professionals in different contexts and cultures.