Measures of self-care in heart failure: Issues with factorial structure and reliability

Measuring Self-Care: A Description of the Family of Disease-Specific and Generic Instruments Based on the Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness

BACKGROUND

In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in attention paid to the patient-reported outcome of self-care. Many investigators have used one of the families of self-care instruments freely available on the website www.self-care-measures.com. These self-care measures have been translated into many languages, which are also available on the website. The measures include both disease-specific and generic instruments, which are based on a common theoretical framework, the Middle Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this article is to illustrate similarities among the instruments and to standardize their scoring, analysis, and use. We describe the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index, the Self-Care of Coronary Heart Disease Inventory, the Self-Care of Hypertension Inventory, the Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory, the Self-Care of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Inventory, the Self-Care of Chronic Illness Inventory, and the Self-Care Inventory. Detailed guidance on scoring, translation, and analysis is provided. Complementary measures of self-care self-efficacy and those used to measure caregiver contributions to patient self-care are briefly described.

CONCLUSIONS

Many of the common questions of instrument users are answered in this article. Following this guidance will facilitate consistent use of the instruments, which will enable users to compare their results to those of others worldwide and facilitate future reviews and meta-analyses.Clinical ImplicationsThis review, emphasizing standard scoring and interpretation, is useful for clinicians and researchers across various populations and settings.

Psychometric Evaluation of the Self-Care in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Inventory in the United States

BACKGROUND

High quality self-care among individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) promotes better outcomes, however, there are few validated self-care measures that are psychometrically sound to be used in research.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of the Self-Care in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Inventory (SC-COPDI) in an English-speaking population in the United States.

METHODS

Factorial validity, construct validity and reliability of the SCCOPDI were examined using components analysis via principal components analysis, hypothesis testing via multivariate linear regression, Cronbach's alpha, and split-half reliability.

RESULTS

The SCCOPDI demonstrated strong evidence of validity and reliability on par with the SCCOPDI's original construction. Component analysis produced item loadings consistent with the theoretical underpinnings of the instrument. Reliability metrics yielded good internal consistency across all subscales of the SCCOPDI.

CONCLUSIONS

The SCCOPDI is a valid and reliable instrument to measure self-care in people with COPD.