Development of self-care self-efficacy scale of hemodialysis patients

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a Self-Care Self-Efficacy Scale for hemodialysis patients. The subjects were 76 patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment, 44 males and 32 females. Their ages ranged from 35 to 83 years. They had been on dialysis for 1 to 416 months, with a mean ± 1 SD of 104.5 ± 78.2 months. An exploratory factor analysis of responses to 36 self-care behaviors in dialysis treatment identified 6 factors: (1) self-care skills, (2) positive cognition, (3) positive acceptance, (4) compliance, (5) modification of cognition, and (6) emphasis on physical condition. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for 28 items was 0.818. The alpha coefficients of the six subscales from Factor 1 to Factor 6 were 0.817, 0.735, 0.587, 0.712, 0.458, and 0.385, respectively, which were sufficiently high to ensure reliability. Factor 2 and Factor 3 were also calculated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS): these factors showed significant negative correlations with depression and anxiety scores. They also had significant positive correlations with the Self-Care Self-Efficacy Scale. These results warrant the reliability and validity of the Self-Care Self-Efficacy Scale. In the future, we intend to use this scale to improve the self-care abilities of dialysis patients in order to improve their mental health and enhance their quality of life during medical treatment.