Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of “self-care behaviour scale” in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

• Published in: Journal of Turkish Society for Rheumatology Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 1 - 6
• Main Authors: Cafer Karalar, Berna, Tokem, Yasemin, Özel, Filiz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Turkish
• Published: Istanbul Galenos Publishing House 27.04.2022
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Behavior; Behavior rating scales; Cross-sectional studies; Data collection; Medical personnel; Patients; Questionnaires; Remission (Medicine); Rheumatoid arthritis; Validity
• DOI: 10.4274/raed.galenos.2022.09797
• ISSN: 2651-2653

Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that requires long-term medication, has several side effects and limits the individual’s daily life that may cause self-care deficiency. Therefore, self-care behaviors of the patients should be identified systematically and self-care behaviors should be supported accordingly. This study aimed to analyze whether or not the scale of self-care behavior was a valid and reliable tool to measure self-care behaviors in the Turkish rheumatoid arthritis population. Methods: The study was conducted between February 1, 2017 - August 30, 2017 in a rheumatology clinic of a university hospital. For language validity, the scale was translated from English and then translated from Turkish to English. For the validity of the items of the translated scale, ten expert opinions were obtained and finalized the scale and consequential form was applied to 119 patients. Results: Cronbach’s Alpha value was found to be 0.675 for internal consistency analysis in accordance with the original values of the scale. Additionally, because of expert opinions, Cronbach’s Alpha value obtained by reversely scoring the first three items were 0.558. Conclusion: Because of the validity and reliability analysis of the Self-Care Behavior scale, it is found that it is a moderately reliable and valid scale for the Turkish society; It is recommended that the items in the scale may cause misunderstandings about patients’ self-care, and therefore a Turkish scale that can measure self-care behaviors in a more valid and reliable manner is recommended.