The Appraisal of Self-Care Agency Scale-Revised (ASAS-R): Reliability and Validity among Portuguese Medical Students

Abstract

Self-care agency plays an important role in an individual’s health. Considering the particularities of their education, it can be a protective factor for the mental health of medical students. This study aims to validate the Portuguese version of the Appraisal of Self-care Agency Scale-Revised (ASAS-R) in Portuguese medical students. A cross-sectional, quantitative, and analytical online study was conducted between 23 April 2021, and 15 July 2021. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to test the internal structure of the ASAS-R. Correlations with the SHS (Subjective Happiness Scale), SWLS (Satisfaction with Life Scale), and MHI (Mental Health Inventory) were calculated using Pearson’s coefficient so as to test convergent validity. Internal consistency was evaluated using inter-item correlation, corrected item-total correlation, and Cronbach’s alpha. The total sample included 781 individuals. EFA yielded a 3-factor solution accounting for 53.9% of the explained variance. Pearson’s coefficients obtained between the 3 factors of ASAS-R and the total scores of the 3 construct-related scales demonstrated adequate convergent validity. Total Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.85, while the Cronbach’s alpha of the three factors was 0.81, 0.55, and 0.83, respectively. This study demonstrated that ASAS-R is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring self-care agency among Portuguese medical students.

Self‐care ability and associated factors in community‐dwelling older adults living with oral frailty using the COM‐B model

“…Therefore, in order to exclude the possibility that this environmental factor interferes with the research results, a larger sample size cross‐sectional investigation should be conducted in future. The self‐care ability has been found to be influenced by various factors in previous studies, including variations in the surveyed population, local economic level, socio‐cultural background and health status in previous studies 34,35 . The low level of self‐care ability of the subjects in this study might be due to oral frailty.…”

“…The self-care ability has been found to be influenced by various factors in previous studies, including variations in the surveyed population, local economic level, socio-cultural background and health status in previous studies. 34,35 The low level of self-care ability of the subjects in this study might be due to oral frailty. Among the three dimensions of the SASE, the highest standardised mean scores (mean score/number of items) were in goal (3.75 ± 0.73) and the lowest scores were in the environment (3.58 ± 0.47).…”

An Assessment of Outpatient Satisfaction with Hospital Pharmacy Quality and Influential Factors in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The reliability of the questionnaire’s internal consistency was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha and corrected item–total correlation. Cronbach’s alpha value over 0.6 and corrected item–total correlation over 0.4 determined a good internal consistency for all items of each domain [ 35 , 36 , 37 ].…”

Development and psychometric validation of the hospitalized patients’ expectations for treatment scale-clinician version

“…We calculated the corrected associations between items and the total score to assess the strength of correlations between each item and the overall scale score. If the item-total correlation coefficient exceeded 0.4, it was considered a satisfactory result (21).…”