Developing and testing of the Foot Care Confidence Scale

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Diabetes Care
• Health Psychology

Background:

• Diabetes mellitus requires diligent foot self-care to prevent complications.
• Assessing patient self-efficacy in foot care is crucial for effective diabetes management.
• Existing tools may not adequately capture confidence levels in performing diabetic foot self-care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Foot Care Confidence Scale (FCCS).
• To measure self-efficacy among individuals with diabetes in performing foot self-care.
• To provide a practical instrument for healthcare professionals to assess diabetic patients' confidence.

Main Methods:

• Instrument development using content validity index (CVI) and literature review.
• Pilot testing with healthy older adults and administration to individuals with diabetes.
• Psychometric evaluation including Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis on a sample of 122 community-dwelling older adults with diabetes.

Main Results:

• The Foot Care Confidence Scale (FCCS) demonstrated excellent content validity.
• The FCCS exhibited high reliability with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.92.
• Factor analysis confirmed a single-factor structure with all 12 items contributing to the measurement of foot care confidence.

Conclusions:

• The FCCS is a psychometrically sound and practical instrument for measuring self-efficacy in diabetic foot self-care.
• The scale can be utilized in various clinical settings, particularly those with time constraints.
• The FCCS can aid nurses in evaluating and enhancing self-care outcomes for individuals with diabetes mellitus.