Control Attitudes Scale-Revised-Brazilian Version

Heart failure demands self-care skills and behaviors that can be negatively impacted by a low level of perceived control (PC), a belief about having the necessary resources to deal with negative events. Having valid and reliable instruments to measure PC is important to support interventions that improve self-care and related outcomes. The Control Attitudes Scale-Revised (CAS-R) was developed in the United States to measure PC in cardiac conditions. In Brazil, there are no instruments available to measure this construct.

The aims of this study were to translate and adapt the CAS-R to the Brazilian population and to assess the content validity of the adapted version.

The CAS-R was translated, back-translated, and assessed by an expert committee for linguistic equivalences. An agreement > 80% was considered adequate. Content validity (clarity, theoretical relevance, and practical pertinence) was assessed by both an expert professional panel (n = 6-8) and a panel of patients with heart failure (n = 40). A content validity coefficient > 0.70 was considered acceptable.

The translations to Brazilian Portuguese were considered consistent with the original CAS-R. In the third round of linguistic equivalence assessment, all items achieved acceptable agreement, except for 2 items. After modifications to the instrument to achieve adequate equivalences, the adapted version had a final content validity coefficient of 0.93. Most patients were able to understand the instrument.

The CAS-R-Brazilian version is equivalent to the original CAS-R and has satisfactory evidence of content validity. Additional psychometric testing will be performed to allow for the assessment of PC in individuals with heart failure in Brazil.