Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Mental Health Self-management Questionnaire among people with mental illness living in the community

BACKGROUND: Self-management is an important factor in maintaining and promoting mental health and recovery from mental health challenges. Thus, it is important to assess and support mental health self-management. In this study, we aimed to develop the Japanese version of the Mental Health Self-management Questionnaire (MHSQ-J), a scale to assess mental health self-management strategy, and clarify its psychometric properties among people with mental illness living in Japan. METHODS: An anonymous self-administered survey including MHSQ-J was conducted for psychiatric outpatient users (N = 295), and 104 of the participants completed MHSQ-J again about two weeks later. Internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach’s α, and test-retest reliability was confirmed by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Construct validity was assessed based on structural validity with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and hypotheses testing. The Self-management Skill Scale, the University of Tokyo Health Sociology version of the Sense of Coherence Scale ver1.2, the Japanese version of Self-identified Stage of Recovery Part-B, the Japanese version of the Flourishing Scale, and the Japanese version of the WHO Disability Assessment Scale 2.0 were used for hypotheses testing. RESULTS: Data from 243 respondents were analyzed. The result of CFA, the goodness-of-fit indices showed marginal fit (AGFI = .830, CFI = .852, RMSEA = .072). EFA identified three factors (Clinical, Empowerment, and Vitality), and the results suggested that the factor structure of the Japanese version of MHSQ was similar to the original 3-factor structure. Significant correlations were found with the hypotheses testing variables related to self-management and recovery, especially on the total score, the Empowerment subscale, and the Vitality subscale. Cronbach’s α (Clinical: .65, Empowerment: .81, Vitality: .75, Total: .83) and ICC (Clinical: .75, 95% confidence interval (CI) [.62, .84], Empowerment: .81, 95% CI [.70, .88], Vitality: .62, 95% CI [.44, .75], Total: .84, 95% CI [.75, .90]) indicated good reliability. CONCLUSION: The results show that MHSQ-J has acceptable reliability and validity to measure the use of self-management strategies for mental health among community living people with mental illness in Japan. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40359-019-0301-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.