Validity and reliability of a Swedish version of the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS): a pilot study

There is a need for a short and easily administered scale, in the Swedish language, for assessing partner relationships in the health care of persons with cardiac disease.

To establish the reliability and validity of the Swedish version of the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS).

The present pilot study has a methodological design.

Content validity has been tested for relevance, clarity and readability. The scale was tested for construct validity with explorative factor analysis. The reliability was tested by internal consistency and test-retest analysis. The result showed a two-factor solution, which does not correspond to the original proposed one-factor solution. The factor analyses revealed two quite distinct factors of RAS, labelled "Relationship built on expectations and satisfaction of needs" and "Relationship built on love and devotion".

The scale has satisfactory psychometric properties in terms of content validity, construct validity, homogeneity and stability in a population of persons with cardiac disease. Wider evaluations of the RAS for other populations and settings are recommended.