INTRODUCTION: Studies have shown that attitudes influence behavior. Developing and maintaining certain attitudes can influence the quality of health care delivered by medical students to their patients. The Brazilian National Guidelines for Medical Education emphasize the significance of the students' attitudes relevant for the medical practice. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed designing and validating an attitude scale to evaluate the impact of the medical curriculum on students' attitudes. METHODOLOGY: The subjects were 202 students (female = 52.85%, male = 47.15%), attending from the first to the eighth phase of the medical undergraduate course. The data for this descriptive and quantitative cohort study were collected using a questionnaire and an attitude measurement scale (5-point Likert scale) containing 102 propositions covering five different factors (social, environmental, belief, knowledge and ethics). RESULTS: Several analyses were undertaken to establish the internal validity of the instrument, including reliability (total = 0.87 and 0.89) and correlation studies. There were no statistically significant differences among the eight analyzed phases. The students showed predominantly positive attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: The final version of the scale was therefore regarded valid and reliable for the assessment of medical students' attitudes.
Education medical; attitude; psychometrics; curriculum; students, medical
