[Building and validating an opinion measuring scale: OMS on health and mental health]

The aim of this study was the construction of a tool in order to know people opinion about mental health, illness and care in this area. We constructed and validated a Scale of opinion measurement, formed by 56 affirmations about mental health, illness and care in which the subjects demonstrated their agreement to the expressed content. The 5 stages of the scale construction involve the formulation of the statements and respective improvement of the affirmations content, understanding and the distribution of items in the Scale before the validation procedure. The definitive tool was applied in a sample of 250 subjects (patients, family members and health professionals). Data were quantitatively analyzed with non parametric proves and qualitatively analyzed through comparisons among groups, by categories.