[A scale of attitudes towards AIDS: a psychometric analysis]

The objective of the present methodological study was to construct and validate a scale of attitudes of people concerning AIDS, to aid in the diagnosis of favourable and unfavourable attitudes and evaluation of educational programs related to AIDS. The steps followed to develop the Likert-type scale were: elaboration of items related to knowledge, feelings and reactions about AIDS; apparent validation and verification of content; application of the instrument in a sample of people; evaluation of the ability to discriminate the items; study of the internal reliability of the scale; factor analysis of the scale to establish the fundamental dimensions of the instrument. The final scale contained 25 items. This instrument showed a high coefficient of reliability and validity.