Examining the Validity and Reliability of the Cardiovascular Disease Questionnaire in Measuring the Empowerment of Elderly Patients to Receive Social Support

Increased problems associated with aging and cardiovascular disorders can negatively influence the elderly empowerment in lifestyle management. Cardiovascular diseases impose economic, social, and psychological burdens in the form of direct and indirect health costs, which results in the loss of empowerment and quality of life in the elderly population. Therefore, it is important to develop a valid and reliable instrument that can effectively measure the empowerment of elderly patients with cardiovascular disease to receive social support.
Methods & Materials: In this descriptive study, the psychometric design of the questionnaire was developed and evaluated based on the following four steps: (1) the concept of empowering the elderly patients with cardiovascular disease in receiving social support was clearly defined after reviewing certain related books and articles; (2) the questionnaire items were designed using resources in Iran and elsewhere; (3) the psychometrics, content validity, and face validity of the questionnaire were examined by ten experts from different universities; and (4) internal consistency of the questionnaire was checked by determining the Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and external reliability was checked by conducting test-retest.
The empowerment of elderly patients’ in receiving social support was determined in seven domains including awareness of personal changes, role playing, adaptation, independence, perceived satisfaction, being in control, and self-management. The primary version of the questionnaire was designed taking into account 35 items during the first and second stages. In the third and fourth stages of psychometric validity and reliability, four items were deleted from the questionnaire and the final version of the questionnaire consisted of 31 items. The content validity index and content validity ratio was reported to be 0.94 and 0.96, respectively. The internal and external reliability of the questionnaire was calculated as (r=0.90) and (r=0.83), respectively.
The final questionnaire had appropriate psychometric properties. The need for further studies is suggested to measure the other types of validity, such as structure validity of the questionnaire.