Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
338
Factor Analysis of the Appraisal of Self-Care Agency Scale
Valmi D. Sousa, PhD, APRN, BC1, Jaclene A. Zauszniewski, PhD, RNC, FAAN2, Richard Zeller, PhD3, and Jane B. Neese, PhD, APRN, BC1. (1) College of Health and Human Services, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA, (2) Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA, (3) College of Nursing, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA
| Learning Objective #1: learn about the dimensionality of the Appraisal of Self-Care Agency. |
| Learning Objective #2: learn about the construct construct validity of the Appraisal of Self-Care Agency. |
Self-care agency, a key concept of Orem’s Theory of Self-Care, is acquired and developed throughout an individual’s life span. The goal of developing and maintaining self-care agency is to enhance an individual’s performance of self-care activities that contribute to the promotion of health and well-being, and the management and/or prevention of diseases and their complications. Despite the importance of self-care agency among people with chronic diseases, there are few psychometric studies that evaluated instruments measuring self-care agency in individuals with diabetes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the dimensionality of the Evers et al.’Appraisal of Self-Care Agency Scale (ASAS), its reliability and construct validity in a sample of individuals with diabetes mellitus. The sample, part of a larger study, consisted of 141 insulin-requiring adults with diabetes mellitus recruited from a Diabetes Care Center in the Southern United States. The ASAS, along with Hurley’s Insulin Management Diabetes Self-Efficacy and Insulin Management Diabetes Self-Care Scales, were used in the study to determine convergent validity. Data were analyzed with internal consistency estimates of reliability, Pearson’s correlations, and factor analysis. The results suggest that the ASAS consists of a single substantive dimension, has adequate construct validity and reliability. However, revision of certain items and conducting further analysis of the scale should be considered.