Development and psychometric properties of a new social support scale for self-care in middle-aged patients with type II diabetes (S4-MAD)

• Main Authors: Naderimagham Shohreh (Author), Niknami Shamsaddin (Author), Abolhassani Farid (Author), Hajizadeh Ebrahim (Author), Montazeri Ali (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: BMC, 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-1035; 1471-2458
• Keywords: Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: BMC Public Health, Vol 12, Iss 1, p 1035 (2012)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Social support has proved to be one of the most effective factors on the success of diabetic self-care. This study aimed to develop a scale for evaluating social support for self-care in middle-aged patients (30-60 years old) with type II diabetes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a two-phase qualitative and quantitative study. The study was conducted during 2009 to 2011 in Tehran, Iran. In the qualitative part, a sample of diabetic patients participated in four focus group discussions in order to develop a preliminary item pool. Consequently, content and face validity were performed to provide a pre-final version of the questionnaire. Then, in a quantitative study, reliability (internal consistency and test-retest analysis), validity and factor analysis (both exploratory and confirmatory) were performed to assess psychometric properties of the scale.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A 38-item questionnaire was developed through the qualitative phase. It was reduced to a 33-item after content validity. Exploratory factor analysis loaded a 30-item with a five-factor solution (nutrition, physical activity, self monitoring of blood glucose, foot care and smoking) that jointly accounted for 72.3% of observed variance. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit to the data. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient showed excellent internal consistency (alpha=0.94), and test-retest of the scale with 2-weeks intervals indicated an appropriate stability for the scale (ICC=0.87).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings showed that the designed questionnaire was a valid and reliable instrument for measuring social support for self-care in middle-aged patients with type II diabetes. It is an easy to use questionnaire and contains the most significant diabetes related behaviors that need continuous support for self-care.</p>