Psychometric evaluation of self-management scale for hemodialysis patients with arteriovenous fistula

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a Self-Management Scale for Hemodialysis Patients on Arteriovenous Fistula (SMHDP) and to verify its validity and reliability. Methods: Items for the preliminary instrument of the SMHDP-scale were created through a literature review and in-depth interviews with hemodialysis patients and hemodialysis unit nurses. A convenient sample was utilized for this study. The questionnaire was distributed to 200 hemodialysis patients with arteriovenous fistula. Content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, convergent validity, and discriminative validity were evaluated respectively. Cronbach's α was used to evaluate the reliability of the SMHDP-scale. Results: Five factors were identified through factor analysis. The factors included dietary knowledge of hemodialysis (8 items), compliance with hemodialysis (7 items), knowledge of hemodialysis (6 items), dietary compliance of hemodialysis (6 items), and compliance with hemodialysis order (3 items).These five factors explained 58.9% of the total variance. The correlation coefficient between criterion instrument and SMHDP-scale was .66 Reliability analysis showed Cronbach's α coefficient was .90. Conclusion: Results show that the SMHDP-scale had good reliability and validity and thus SMHDP-scale may be a useful scale for clinical practices and for research as a measure of self-management of hemodialysis patient on arteriovenous fistula.