Designing and Developing the Prenatal Care Scale based on Health Belief Model

Aim: The aim of this study was to design a tool and to assess its validity and reliability based on native culture characterization to evaluate the health belief model (HBF) constructs about prenatal care. Methods: 215 pregnant women covered by the health centers of Iranshahr in the age group of 18-35 years and the least ability of reading and writing participated in this cross-sectional study. After reviewing the literature, the tool was designed, and its validity and reliability were approved based on psychometric data of the target group and the view of a panel of experts through calculating the content validity ratio, content validity index, exploratory factor analysis, and internal consistency. Findings: The validity of 42 items was assessed through calculating the index score of the item effect above 1.5, content validity ratio more than 0.80, and content validity index higher than 0.79. By using exploratory factor analysis with a special value greater than 1, six factors and 35 items remained that were classified into six categories based on the literature review and content items, which were able to predict 77.095 % of the total variance of the tool. The reliability of the research tool was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha equal to 0.816. Conclusion: The results of this study provide proper evidence about the strength of structural factors and the reliability of the assessment tool for the structures of HBM about prenatal care. It can be considered by the researchers in developing a tool for research, education and action.