Testing of the PHS-ES: a measure of Perimenopausal Health Self-Efficacy

This article summarizes the development and psychometric analysis of the Perimenopausal Health Self-Efficacy Scale (PHS-ES) designed to assess women's health promotion self-efficacy related to mid-life changes in health. Items were generated from a qualitative study of HRT decision-making and recommended health promotion activities. The PHS-ES was administered 2 weeks apart to 98 university-based women ages 45 to 64 along with the measures of functional health status, stress, and the self-concept. Internal consistency (alpha = .88 and .90) and test-retest reliabilities (.86) were acceptable. Four factors emerged during factor analysis with 21 of the items explaining 50% of the variance and which were consistent with the conceptual basis of the PHS-ES. The PHS-ES was significantly correlated with functional health status, self-concept, stress, age and body mass index (BMI). In conjunction with stress and BMI, the PHS-ES predicted 50% of the variance of functional health. Further reliability and validity assessments are recommended with more racially and socioeconomically heterogeneous groups of perimenopausal women. It was concluded that the PHS-ES adequately demonstrated reliability and validity in this study.