The chronic kidney disease self-efficacy (CKD-SE) instrument: development and psychometric evaluation

Self-management has been associated with positive health outcomes among adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Perceived disease-related self-efficacy (DSE) is considered a critical component in the successful self-management of chronic disease. A valid and reliable instrument for measuring CKD patients' self-efficacy is needed. This study aims to develop and test a new instrument to measure the DSE of patients with early stage CKD.

A total of 594 Taiwanese patients with early stage CKD recruited from two medical centers and one regional hospital in southern Taiwan completed the questionnaire. The CKD self-efficacy (CKD-SE) was evaluated using exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and measures of reliability.

EFA identified four distinct factors with loadings ranging from 0.557 to 0.970: autonomy, self-integration, problem solving and seeking social support, accounting for 64.348% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the subscales ranged from 0.843 to 0.901.

This promising 25-item CKD-SE instrument can be used for the early identification of patients with low DSE, thus allowing the development of interventions to help these patients attain an appropriate level of DSE.