Reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the thirst distress scale-heart failure

Abstract

Objective: Patients with heart failure may experience thirst distress. There is, however, no measurement tool to define patients’ thirst distress in Turkey. The study aimed to determine psychometric properties of the translated Turkish version of the Thirst Distress Scale-Heart Failure (TDS-HF) in a sample of heart failure patients. Design: This methodologically planned study was conducted in two different training and research hospitals in Istanbul. Content validity, confirmatory factor analysis and concurrent validity were used in the validity analysis following the language validity analysis. Reliability coefficients were analysed by calculating Cronbach’s alpha, McDonald’s Omega and test-retest reliability coefficients. Validity and reliability analysis involved 116 patients, and test-retest analysis was carried out among 36 patients who volunteered to participate in the study. Results: The patients had a mean age of 55.2 ± 14.9. The factor structure and the examined fit indices of the one-dimensional eight-item scale indicated that the Turkish version of the scale was consistent with the original model. Item-total correlations were between 0.84 and 0.93, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.90, the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.97 and the McDonald’s omega coefficient was 0.93, demonstrating that the scale is highly reliable. Conclusion: The Turkish version of the Thirst Distress Scale-Heart Failure was found to be valid and reliable.