Development of an oral anticoagulant-use attitude scale, and assessment of its validity and reliability

OBJECTIVES: To develop a reliable scale that can measure the attitudes of individuals using oral anticoagulant drugs (OACs). METHODS: This methodological study was conducted with 296 followed-up individuals using OACs for at least 6 months and visiting the cardiology and neurology clinics of a hospital in Turkey during 2017. A 20-item pool was used to construct the scale and all items were found suitable after content validity analysis and preliminary testing. Construct validity was examined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). RESULTS: The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value of the scale (0.79) and results of Bartlett’s test showed that the sample size was suitable for factor analysis (p<0.001). The total Cronbach alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.83. Factor analysis to assess construct-content validity of the scale identified 4 factors (variance, 54%). Using a path diagram in CFA, Chi-square/df ratio values was calculated at 2.807, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) at 0.093, comparative fit index (CFI) at 0.879, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) at 0.078. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the OACAs we developed had high reliability and validity.