OBJECTIVE: This study aims to test a Chinese cross-cultural adaptation of the English version of the Person-Centred Care Assessment Tool (P-CAT) and evaluate its psychometric properties.

DESIGN: P-CAT was translated/back-translated using established procedures before the psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version was made.

SETTING: Two hospitals covering urban and suburban areas of Kunming in the Yunnan province of China.

PARTICIPANTS: 152 female hospital staff completed the survey.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Construct validity and reliability, including internal consistency and test-retest reliability, were assessed among a sample of hospital staff.

RESULTS: The factor analysis resulted in a two-component solution that consisted of two subscales. The corrected item-total correlations for all of the items ranged from 0.14 to 0.44, with six items not meeting the cut-off level for item-total correlation (>0.3). The Chinese P-CAT demonstrated strong reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.91-0.94 for the scales and a test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.88 for the overall scale scores. The intraclass correlation was 0.92 (95% CI 0.90 to 0.95).

CONCLUSION: P-CAT appears to be a promising measure for evaluating staff perceptions of person-centredness in Chinese hospital environments. The results show that P-CAT can be a useful tool for improving the quality of healthcare in terms of person-centred care in the Chinese context.