Background Heart failure is a complex clinical syndrome with high demands for self-care. The Self-care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) was developed to measure self-care and has demonstrated robust psychometric properties across populations. Aim To assess the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the SCHFI (A-SCHFI). Discussion The scores of the A-SCHFI administered to 223 Lebanese patients with heart failure were used to validate this instrument. Face and content validity, assessed by a panel of experts, were found sufficient. The three constructs of the A-SCHFI explained 37.5% of the variance when performing exploratory factor analysis. Adequate fit indices were achieved using the modification procedure of controlling error terms with the confirmatory factor analysis. The reliability coefficient was adequate in the maintenance, management and confidence scales. Conclusion Following adaptation, the modified A-SCHFI was shown to be a valid and reliable measure of self-care among the Lebanese population. Implications for practice Cross-cultural adaptation is a rigorous process involving complex procedures and analyses. The adaptation of the A-SCHFI should be further analysed, including sensitivity and test-retest analysis, with methods to assess the degree of agreement among the panel.
Keywords: Arabic; Lebanon; cardiovascular disease; heart failure; nursing research; psychometrics; self-care.