August 29, 2007Journal of Advanced Nursing
Evaluation of the European Heart Failure Self‐care Behaviour Scale in a United Kingdom population
Key result
12-item European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale demonstrates moderate internal consistency in UK HF patients.
- Cronbach's alpha 0.69
- n=183
Population
183 patients with heart failure, mainly men, mean age 65.6 years, recruited from an outpatient clinic in the…
Design
Cross-sectional
Follow-up
within 2 weeks
Authors
Discussion
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Member takes
Implication
May warrant caution in UK heart failure self-care assessments; leaves open need for validated alternative tools.
Key Points
- To evaluate the internal consistency, reliability, and validity of the 12-item European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale in an English-speaking United Kingdom population.
- Enrolled a convenience sample of 183 outpatient clinic patients (N=183; 143 men; mean age 65.6 ± 12.3 years) with NYHA Class I–IV heart failure between July 2004 and July 2005 in the United Kingdom.
- Administered the European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale, the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire, and the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index during a clinic visit, repeating the European scale at home within two weeks.
- The European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale demonstrated short-term repeatability but exhibited only moderate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.69), which was lower than estimates reported in other European cohorts.
- Cross-instrument comparisons with the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index questioned whether both scales evaluate identical behavioral constructs, while variance in self-care scores was not explained by age, sex, or disease severity.
Study Design
Type
Cross-Sectional (n=183)
Multicenter
No
Structured PICO
P
Population
183 patients with heart failure (NYHA Class I-IV) recruited from a UK outpatient clinic to evaluate the European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale.
E
Exposure
12-item European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale
O
Outcome
Internal consistency, reliability and validity of the 12-item European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scalepatient reported
Main Result
Effect estimate: Cronbach's alpha 0.69
The 12-item European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale showed only moderate internal consistency in a UK population, suggesting further exploration of self-care measurement tools is needed.
Cite This Study
Shuldham et al. (2007) conducted a cross-sectional in Heart failure (n=183). 12-item European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale was evaluated on Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) (Cronbach's alpha 0.69). The 12-item European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale demonstrated moderate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.69) in a UK heart failure population.