Validity of the Turkish version of the medication adherence self-efficacy scale-short form in hypertensive patients

Objective: Study purpose was to examine the validity of a 13-item short form of the Medication Adherence Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (MASES-SF) in an independent sample of 150 hypertensive Turkish patients. Methods: This is a methodological study and 150 adult patients, who are receiving medication for hypertension in the last one year, were included as the study sample. The sample of the study was chosen with the method of simple random sampling. The study was conducted between October 25, 2010 and December 31, 2010 at Family Health Center (FHC). In this study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used for psychometric evaluation. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the reliability of the scale. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis showed that all goodness indexes were at acceptable quality: χ2=61.72, df=65, p 0.05, GFI=0.99, CFI=1.00, RMSA=0.00. Reliability coefficient of the Turkish adaptation of MASES-SF was found as 0.94 and item-total correlations ranged between 0.13 - 0.52. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension had lower self-efficacy scores compared to those with normal blood pressure. Conclusion: This result indicated that the preliminary criterion validity is adequate. Psychometric testing demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and validity of the instrument for patients in the study group. It can be used confidently in determining and testing interventions to improve medication adherence self-efficacy perceptions and behaviors in hypertensive Turkish patients. The MASES-SF is brief, quick to administer, and capture useful data on medication adherence self-efficacy in hypertensive patients.