Abstract

Background: Patients' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about heart attack can affect the treatment process and their request for help during heart attacks. A valid and reliable instrument is required to examine cardiac patients' knowledge, attitude, and beliefs. Objectives: This study aimed to translate and develop a reliable Persian version of the instrument for assessing cardiac patients' knowledge, attitude, and beliefs regarding heart attack. Methods: In this methodological study, 306 patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) were selected via convenience sampling to fill out the Persian version of the instrument for assessing cardiac patients' knowledge, attitude, and beliefs regarding heart attack. This instrument was translated based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) guidelines. Face, content, and construct validities of the instrument were assessed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Its reliability was also assessed using McDonald's omega and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Results: Exploratory factor analysis led to the extraction of two factors in the attitude dimension, including 'recognition of symptoms' and 'request for help', which explained 77.31 of the total variance together. In the belief dimension, three factors were extracted that accounted for 49.59 of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the goodness of fit of the two-factor model of attitude (RMSEA = 0.033, CFI = 1.00, NFI = 0.99, and PNFI = 0.40) and the three-factor model of belief (RMSEA = 0.038, CFI = 0.96, NFI = 0.89, PNFI = 0.54). Based on the Kuder-Richardson formula, the reliability of the knowledge dimension was reported as 0.938. The reliability of the two knowledge dimensions and the three attitude dimensions were reported as 0.776, 0.962, 0.527, 0.317, and 0.665, respectively. In addition, Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.810, 0.904, 0.798, 0.757, and 0.906 were found for these dimensions, respectively. Conclusion: The Persian version of the instrument for assessing cardiac patients' knowledge, attitude, and beliefs regarding heart attack had good validity and reliability. Therefore, it can be used in future studies on cardiac patients.