Abstract

Background: Lifelong self-care is important in particular for patients with diabetes, because preventing diabetes complications can help maintain the quality of life and independence of diabetic patients. Currently, there are 16 self-care tools, the majority of which focus on one part of self-care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Farsi Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory (F-SCODI) in Iran. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 400 diabetic patients who were selected by convenience sampling to complete the F-SCODI. In this regard, construct validity was assessed using exploratory factor analysis. Additionally, the internal consistency of the F-SCODI was evaluated by McDonald's omega coefficient and Cronbach's alpha; whereas its stability was assessed by a test re-test approach. Results: In total, four factors were extracted (activity-nutritional behavior, smoking avoidance behavior, illness-related behaviors, and health-promoting behaviors) in the dimension of self-care maintenance, three factors (symptom monitoring, symptom assessment, and symptom recognition) in the dimension of self-care monitoring, two factors (autonomous self-care and consultative self-care) in the self-care management dimension, and two factors (task-specific self-care confidence and persistence self-care) in the dimension of confidence. In this regard, the overall consistencies of the four dimensions were 0.809, 0.767, 0.590, and 0.886, respectively. Conclusion: This study indicated that the Farsi version of SCODI had acceptable internal consistency and reliability as well as content and construct validity. Given the acceptable psychometric properties, this tool can be used in future studies in Iranian patients with diabetes.