Cross-Cultural and Psychometric Properties Assessment of the Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury.

Abstract

The Exercise Self-Efficacy scale (ESES) is a reliable measure, in the English language, of exercise self-efficacy inindividuals with spinal cord injury. The aim of this study was to culturally adjust and validate the Exercise Self-Efficacy scale in thePortuguese language. The Exercise Self-Efficacy scale was applied to 76 subjects, with three-month intervals (three applications intotal). The reliability was appraised using the intra-class correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman methods, and the internal consistencywas evaluated using Cronbach´s alpha. The Exercise Self-Efficacy scale was correlated with the domains of the Quality of lifeQuestionnaire SF-36 and Functional Independence Measure and tested using the Spearman rho coefficient. The Exercise Self-Efficacy scale-Brazil presented good internal consistency (alpha 1 = 0.856; alpha 2 = 0.855; alpha 3 =0.822) and high reliability in the test-retest (intra-class correlation coefficient = 0.97). There was a strong correlation between theExercise Self-Efficacy scale-Brazil and the SF-36 only in the functional capacity domain (rho = 0.708). There were no changes inExercise Self-Efficacy scale-Brazil scores between the three applications (p = 0.796). The validation of the Exercise Self-Efficacy scale questionnaire permits the assessor to use it reliably in Portuguesespeaking countries, since it is the first instrument measuring self-efficacy specifically during exercises in individuals with spinal cordinjury. Furthermore, the questionnaire can be used as an instrument to verify the effectiveness of interventions that use exercise as anoutcome. The results of the Brazilian version of the Exercise Self-Efficacy scale support its use as a reliable and valid measurementof exercise self-efficacy for this population.