HIV Treatment Adherence Self-efficacy Scale for Pakistani HIV/AIDS patients: Translation and psychometric evaluation

Abstract

Aim: This study translated HIV-Adherence Self-efficacy scale (HIV-ASES) and evaluated its psychometric properties in Pakistani HIV/AIDS patients.

Background: High level of adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is required in management of HIV/AIDS; and it is significantly associated with self-efficacy for adherence to treatment. Understanding and enhancing adherence self-efficacy is a huge challenge for care management staff including nurses, counselors and doctors due to paucity of research and availability of valid and reliable instruments in Urdu language to assess HIV treatment adherence self-efficacy.

Methods: Brislin's translation method was used to translate HIV-ASES in Urdu. A cross-sectional survey consisting of a demographic questionnaire and Urdu HIV-ASES was administered on 300 HIV/AIDS patients seeking treatment in a government hospital. SPSS-20 and Mplus 8.1 were used for statistical analysis.

Results: Semantic, content, conceptual and technical equivalence between source and target versions were established. The final Confirmatory Factor Analysis model had 0.95 CFI and 0.06 RMSEA (CI = 0.04-0.08). Cronbach's alpha was 0.89 for full scale, 0.81 for integration, and 0.88 for perseverance subscales.

Conclusion: Urdu HIV-ASES is a valid and a reliable instrument for assessing HIV treatment adherence self-efficacy for further research, intervention and management of HIV/AIDS.

Keywords: AIDS patients; Adherence measures; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; HIV care; Translation and adaptation.