This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Korean version of the Patient Activation Measure 13 (PAM13) using Rasch analysis. The sample consisted of 270 Korean patients with osteoarthritis. The PAM13 was translated into Korean using a standardized forward-backward translation approach. In this study, the Cronbach's α coefficient was .88, the average interitem correlation was .34, and the average item-rest correlation was .55. The difficulty ranking of the item in this study differed from that in the original version. We did not need to collapse response categories. A total of 57.5% of the variance was explained by the residuals, indicating unidimensionality. The results suggest that the PAM13-K is a reliable and valid measure of activation. Further research is needed to validate item responsiveness and intervention effects.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to survey patient activation for self-management and to identify factors associated with patient activation for self-management among community residents with osteoarthritis in Korea. Methods: Cross-sectional study design was used. Survey data were collected from 270 community residents with osteoarthritis through direct interviews. Studied factors included patient activation, joint pain, physical function, depression, and general characteristics. Data were analyzed using chi-squared test, t-test and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: The participants' mean score of patient activation was 56.0±16.61. The mean score of each factor was 10.6±5.89 for joint pain, 5.5±3.56 for physical function, and 19.3±10.01 for depression. The patient activation level was significantly associated with depression and general characteristics such as education, religion, comorbid hypertension, and use of medical clinics (p<.05). Conclusion: The findings suggest that depression, education, religion, comorbid hypertension, and use of medical clinics may be important factors to be considered when developing programs of patient activation for self-management. This is the first study that measured patient activation, and further studies are suggested to find factors associated with patient activation for self-management among community residents with other chronic diseases.