Psychometric Characteristics of the Self-Care of Chronic Illness Inventory in Older Adults Living in a Middle-Income Country

Abstract

Chronic illness requires numerous treatments and self-care is essential in the care process. Evaluation of self-care behaviors facilitates the identification of patients’ needs and optimizes education and care processes. This study aimed to test the psychometric characteristics (validity, reliability, and measurement error) of the Albanian version of the Self-Care of Chronic Illness Inventory (SC-CII). Patients with multiple chronic conditions and caregivers were recruited in outpatient clinics in Albania. The patients completed the SC-CII, which includes three scales: self-care maintenance, self-care monitoring, and self-care management. Factorial validity was tested for each scale, with confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was evaluated with the composite coefficient, Cronbach’s alpha, and the global reliability index for multidimensional scales. The construct validity was tested using hypothesis testing and known differences between groups. The measurement error was tested to assess responsiveness to changes. The self-care maintenance and self-care monitoring scales showed a unidimensional factorial structure, while the self-care management scale showed a bidimensional structure. Reliability estimates were adequate for all reliability coefficients. Construct validity was supported. The measurement error was adequate. The Albanian version of the SC-CII shows good psychometric properties in the Albanian sample.

Psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Arabic Self-Care Inventory

“…Previous research among persons with specific health conditions (e.g., heart failure) showed that cultural differences affect symptom recognition and health care practices [ 13 , 14 , 29 ]. Cultural differences could also affect the choice of adopting a curing not preventive healthcare attitude [ 30 ]. This evidence could explain the differences in the self-care maintenance and self-care monitoring between the current study and the findings reported by Luciani and colleagues [ 12 ].…”

Spanish version of the Self‐Care of Chronic Illness Inventory: A validation study amongst community‐dwelling older adults with chronic multimorbidity

“…The SC‐CII is composed of three independent sub‐scales that coincide with the three domains of self‐care identified in the MRT‐SCCI: the self‐care maintenance sub‐scale (8 items measuring ‘health‐promoting behaviour’ and ‘illness‐related behaviour’), the self‐care monitoring sub‐scale (5 items measuring ‘self‐care monitoring behaviour’) and the self‐care management sub‐scale (7 items measuring ‘autonomous behaviour’ and ‘consulting behaviour’) (de Maria, Matarese, et al, 2021; Riegel et al, 2018). The SC‐CII has been cross‐validated in adult samples from Sweden, Italy, the United States (De Maria et al, 2019), China (Jin et al, 2023), Thailand (Bunsuk et al, 2023) and Albania (Arapi et al, 2023), and it has been used to assess self‐care behaviours in controlled randomized trials and other observational studies worldwide (Iovino et al, 2023; Massimo et al, 2023; Osokpo et al, 2022; Riegel, Hanlon et al, 2019; Säfström et al, 2022). However, it remains unclear whether this tool is reliable and valid to assess self‐care behaviours amongst Spanish‐speaking, community‐dwelling older adults with chronic multimorbidity.…”