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Psychometric properties of the Death Anxiety Scale for adult chronic patients
Ximena Palacios-Espinosa1, Ricardo Sánchez Pedraza2, Ana-María Gómez-Carvajal1
1Universidad del Rosario, School of Medicine and Health Science, People, Family and Society Research Group, Bogotá, Colombia.
Objectives:
Death anxiety (DA) is a predictor of exacerbation of both physical and psychological symptoms of chronic diseases. Therefore, having short and easy-to-apply instruments to assess the presence of DA and adopting a multidisciplinary approach to address it are important. This study analyzes the psychometric properties of the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), originally developed by Donald Templer, in a Colombian population of adult patients diagnosed with a chronic disease.
Methods:
The original instrument was linguistically, conceptually, and culturally adapted to Colombian Spanish to be subsequently administered to 301 adult patients with chronic diseases.
Results:
The exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure, which explained 47% of variance. Internal consistency was demonstrated (Cronbach's alpha: 0.71; McDonald's omega: 0.76; Guttman's lambda 6 [G6]: 0.74; greatest lower bound: 0.54). A correlation coefficient of 0.64 was found between the total score of the DAS and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI).
Conclusion:
When comparing the results with the versions of the DAS in Spanish from Mexico and Spain, variability in the psychometric properties was observed. Language cannot therefore be assumed to be a guarantee of the reliability and validity of the instrument.
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