QualityRights in medical education to reduce coercion in mental health in Colombia: instrument validation and quasi-experimental study

Background The QualityRights initiative has shown benefits in decreasing coercive practices and enhancing the recognition of human rights in healthcare. Aims To translate the World Health Organization’s (WHO) QualityRights Practices Questionnaire into Spanish and assess the relationships between coercive practices in healthcare settings, perceptions of mental disorders, and attitudes and commitment to human rights among primary healthcare professionals from multiple disciplines. Also, we sought to compare these variables between trained and untrained professionals, and evaluate longitudinal outcomes of integrating QualityRights training into undergraduate medical education. Method A quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group was conducted. Instruments included the Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally III, Human Rights Exposure in Social Work and Human Rights Engagement in Social Work scales, and the WHO QualityRights Practices Questionnaire. A total of 260 professionals from 12 Colombian regions participated in the study. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the effects of the QualityRights initiative on various dimensions related to human rights. Results Translation and validation of the WHO QualityRights Practices Questionnaire yielded excellent psychometric properties (Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value: 0.945; Cronbach’s α = 0.891–0.923; single component explaining 73.4% of variance). The QualityRights initiative was significantly associated with greater human rights knowledge and lower endorsement of coercive practices and authoritarian beliefs. In relation to coercive practices, the initiative was significantly associated with lower scores on the QualityRights Practices Questionnaire ( B = −3.118, p < 0.001). Conclusions In Colombia, incorporating the QualityRights initiative into medical education appears to be a promising strategy for reducing stigma, enhancing knowledge and commitment to human rights, and minimising coercive practices in primary mental healthcare.