[Brief measure to assess patient perception of self-influence on the disease course-version for hemodialysis]

Self-influence on the disease course has a significant impact on coping with disease and adherence to medical recommendations.

Elaboration of a brief scale for screening of patient perception of self-influence on the course of disease among hemodialysis, which could be used during usual medical practice.

In the first stage of the study, based on a group focus interview with 6 hemodialysis (mean age 65.2 ± 14.8 year)--5 women (83%) and 1 men (17%), mean time of dialysis 43.8 ± 38 months, a list of 51 characteristics of patients with low (LP) and high perception (HP) of self-influence on the curse of disease, was constructed. In the second stage 99 patients (mean age 66.1 ± 14.7 year)--51 men (52%) and 48 women (48%), mean time of dialysis 48.7 ± 48.1 months, assessed scale reliability. They were selected by their nephrologists to groups with LP and HP. Based on the results 11 items had the strongest power of discrimination of those two groups. 15 (13.2%) hemodialysis refused to participate at this part of study. In a third step 70 (mean age 68 ± 13.3 year) patients--40 men (57.1%) and 30 women (42.9%), mean time of dialysis 48.1 ± 45.6 months, assessed validity of the tool.

The reliability alfa-Cronbach = 0.9 and validity tau-Kendall = 0.6.

Scale has a very high reliability and satisfactory validity. It can be used for those of hemodialysis who have problems with adherence to medical recommendations or have difficulty in contact with the medical staff or other patients.