Journal of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences

Background and Objectives: Perceived social support in  emotional, informational ,and instrumental dimensions  has an important role in minimizing the adverse effects of chronic health problems. Consequently, measuring social support is of paramount importance, particularly for evaluating supportive treatments provided to patients with heart failure (HF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and the validity of the HF patients’ perceived social support inventory.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012 in Hamedan, Iran. Initially, five valid and standardized questionnaires were combined to generate a single inventory. The face and the content validity of the generated inventory were confirmed by 20 specialists in psychology and instrument development. Then, a convenience sample of 50 patients with HF was recruited and the validity and reliability of the inventory was assessed through calculating its content, face and construct validity, Cronbach’s alpha, and test-retest correlation coefficient. The data were analyzed through conducting the Kolmogrov-Smirnov and the Tukey’s tests and analysis of variance as well as calculating Cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficient. Measures of descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used for data presentation.

Results: The Content Validity Index and KMO were 0.92 and 0.817. The test-retest correlation coefficient and the Cronbach’s alpha of the inventory were α= 0.895 and 0.87, respectively. Moreover, examining the correlation of the scores of the inventory with the scores of a standardized social support questionnaire yielded a correlation coefficient of r = 0.654, denoting an acceptable validity.

Conclusion: The findings of the present study indicate that the HF Patients’ Perceived Social Support Inventory has an acceptable validity and reliability. Consequently, this inventory is an appropriate disease-specific inventory for measuring perceived social support among patients with HF.

Key words: Scale, Inventory, Social support, Heart failure, Validity, Reliability

Funding: This research was funded by Hamedan University of Medical Sciences.

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Ethical approval: The Ethics Committee of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences approved the study.

How to cite this article: Cheraghi MA, DavariDolatabadi E. Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Heart Failure Patients’ Perceived Social Support Inventory. J Rafsanjan Univ Med Sci 2016; 15(3): 195-208. [Farsi]