Client Perceptions of Satisfaction With AIDS Services: An Instrument Development

The purpose of this article is to show how AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) can develop their own instruments to assess client satisfaction by using support from academic partners. The Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) is an example of this process. The initial 12-item CSQ was piloted using a sample of 46 HIV-infected men and women, resulting in a revised 8-item CSQ that was assessed by using a sample of 121 HIV-infected men and women. The initial CSQ (12-item) yielded three factors, volunteer's skill/access, volunteer's attitude, and volunteer's caring, accounting for 74.6% of the explained variance (Cronbach's alpha = 0.84). The revised CSQ (8-item) resulted in one factor accounting for 67% of the explained variance (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92). Findings indicated acceptable reliability and validity of the CSQ to assess client satisfaction as an outcome of ASO client-agency interaction. Guidelines for instrument development by ASOs are proposed. Strategies to collaborate with the academic community to facilitate instrument development are discussed.

Key words: community-academic collaboration, community-based AIDS service organizations, instrument development, satisfaction