The reliability of prayer-based self-efficacy scale to assess self-confidence of Muslims with low back pain

Low back pain (LBP) may challenge an individual's self-confidence to perform usual daily activities such as Islamic daily prayer. Existing self-efficacy scales may not be appropriate to assess individual's self-confidence to perform Islamic prayers.

This study aimed to develop a scale to assess self-confidence to prepare and perform Islamic prayer in the presence of LBP, the Islamic Prayer-based Self-efficacy Scale (IpbSeS), and to determine its consistency.

The IpbSeS consists of three parts: pre-prayer preparation, getting to and from the mosque, and positions and movements during prayer. On a scale of 0 to 6, 0 indicates 'not at all confident' and 6 'fully confident'. Sixty individuals with LBP gave their responses on two different visits. Pain intensity was assessed by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and the pain intensity changes were assessed using a seven-point global patient rating scale.

Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient, Wilcoxon test and t-test were used in the analysis (alpha set at 0.05).

VAS scores did not differ significantly between visits. No association was found between VAS and age (r = 0.039, p = 0.77) and between VAS and body mass index (BMI; r = 0.06, p = 0. 67). All 28 questions have consistent responses on two visits (0.75 ≤ r ≤ 0.99, p < 0.001 for all) indicating a very high reliability.

IpbSeS appears to be a reliable instrument to assess the self-confidence of Muslims in the presence of LBP to pray.