Development and Testing of the Hypertensive Nephropathy Self-Care Knowledge Scale

Background and Purpose:There is currently no scale to measure the self-care knowledge of patients with hypertensive nephropathy. This study aimed to develop the Hypertensive Nephropathy Self-Care Knowledge (HN-SCK) scale for these patients and to test its reliability and validity.Methods:A methodological study was conducted in two stages. In stage 1, the content of the HN-SCK scale was developed after reviewing the literature and based on Orem’s Self-Care Model. In stage 2, data were collected from June 2021 to November 2021 and a convenience sample of 240 patients in the nephrology department of a hospital were recruited. Exploratory factor analysis was used to test the construct validity of the scale using principal components analysis with orthogonal rotation. The scale’s reliability was tested using Cronbach’s α and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.Results:The HN-SCK scale comprises 12 items. Three factors were extracted, namely disease cognition, dietary management, and notes for daily life, with Cronbach’s α coefficients of 0.72, 0.87, and 0.71, respectively. The total explained variance was 57.65%.Implications for Practice:The scale has excellent reliability and validity. It can preliminarily assess patients’ self-care knowledge so that healthcare professionals can provide them with relevant knowledge in a timely manner and thereby improve their self-care level and assist them in coexisting with their disease status.