Abstract
BackgroundBreast cancer preventive behaviors have an extreme effect on women’s health. Despite the benefits of preventive behaviors regarding breast cancer, they have not been implemented as routine care for healthy women. To assess this health issue, a reliable and valid scale is needed. The aim of the present study is to develop and examine the psychometric properties of a new scale, called the ASSISTS, in order to identify factors that affect women’s breast cancer prevention behaviors.MethodsA multi-phase instrument development method was performed to develop the questionnaire from February 2012 to September 2014. The item pool was generated based on secondary analyses of previous qualitative data. Then, content and face validity were applied to provide a pre-final version of the scale. The scale validation was conducted with a sample of women recruited from health centers affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The construct validity (both exploratory and confirmatory), convergent validity, discriminate validity, internal consistency reliability and test-retest analysis of the questionnaire were tested.ResultsFifty-eight items were initially extracted from the secondary analysis of previous qualitative data. After content validity, this was reduced to 49 items. The exploratory factor analysis revealed seven factors (Attitude, supportive systems, self-efficacy, information seeking, stress management, stimulant and self-care) containing 33 items that jointly accounted for 60.62 % of the observed variance. The confirmatory factor analysis showed a model with appropriate fitness for the data. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the subscales ranged from 0.68 to 0.85, and the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) ranged from 0.71 to 0.98; which is well above the acceptable thresholds.ConclusionThe findings showed that the designed questionnaire was a valid and reliable instrument for assessing factors affecting women’s breast cancer prevention behaviors that can be used both in practice and in future studies.
Highlights
Breast cancer preventive behaviors have an extreme effect on women’s health
Several risk factors may increase the chance of developing breast cancer, and lifestyle factors have a major effect on this field
The second phase was a testing phase, involving crosssectional studies with women. We carried out both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, and tested the convergent and discriminant validity and the internal consistency of the scale
Summary
Breast cancer preventive behaviors have an extreme effect on women’s health. Despite the benefits of preventive behaviors regarding breast cancer, they have not been implemented as routine care for healthy women. To assess this health issue, a reliable and valid scale is needed. Breast cancer is an increasingly global public health problem that has noticeable influences on the daily activities of patients. It is the most common type of cancer among females and the leading cause of cancer death in women [2]. Lifestyle changes include increased intake of healthy diet, decreased alcohol consumption and increased exercise [7,8,9]
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