Barrier item response options are scored as 1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = neither; 4 = agree; and 5 = strongly agree. Thus, higher scores indicate greater barriers to patient enrolment or participation in a CR programme.
A "not applicable" response option for each item is recommended. It would not be included in the mean scores, but instead score using frequency and percentage. This would provide information on barriers that are not as relevant in your setting.
If an individual’s survey is missing more than 20% of the items, then it should be excluded from further analysis except for individual barrier identification based on highest mean scores.
Mean scores are calculated to reflect total CR barriers, and mean subscale scores are also computed. The syntax in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to compute the mean for Total barriers is the following:
COMPUTE Mean_Total_Barriers =MEAN.17(t2barriers1,t2barriers2,t2barriers3,t2barriers4,t2barriers5,t2barriers6,t2barriers7,t2barriers8,t2barriers9,t2barriers10,t2barriers11,t2barriers12,t2barriers13,t2barriers14,t2barriers15,t2barriers16,t2barriers17,t2barriers18,t2barriers19,t2barriers20,t2barriers21).
EXECUTE.
A final open-ended item queries respondents to report any other barriers not captured in the list of 21 barriers. Content analysis is used to code responses.
