[Validity and reliability of the sense of coherence scale among nursing undergraduate students from a Spanish...

To analyze the factor structure of the OLQ-13 scale and to study the direct relationship between sense of coherence and lifestyles in university students of nursing.

Cross-sectional study.

University of Jaén. Andalusia, Spain.

384 students from the first three years of the nursing degree in the University of Jaén.

Internal consistency was studied by Cronbach's alpha, reliability test-retest was measured by intraclass coefficient correlation (ICC) and construct validity was analysed by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and known-groups technique.

The internal consistency of the scale was adequate (Cronbach α = 0.809). The ICC for the reliability test-retest was 0.91. The exploratory factor analysis showed 3 factors explaining 50.13% of the variance. The confirmatory factor analysis showed f goodness-of-fit indexes for the proposed model CFI=0.965; RMSA=0.041; GFI=0.963; SRMR=0.041. Statistically significant differences in sense of coherence were found among the subgroups of students with healthy and unhealthy lifestyles (p <0.001).

The study confirms the multidimensionality of the OLQ-13 scale, in which 3 factors were identified: external meaningful, comprehensibility and manageability, and internal comprehensibility and manageability. The OLQ-13 may be a valid and reliable scale for use in the Spanish university population.