مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE TURKISH ADAPTATION OF THE CHILD ATTITUDE TOWARD ILLNESS SCALE

Abstract :

Objective: Attitudes may influence the adaptation of children towards chronic illnesses as well as the course of illness. This study aims to carry out the validity and reliability tests of the Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale (CATIS). Methods: In this study, the Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale (CATIS) is adapted to Turkish. The research population consisted of children aged between 9 and 17, who were observed in Ege University Faculty of Medicine Children’s Hospital and Behcet Uz Children’s Hospital, who were literate with primary school 3rd class level, who had a chronic illness and who were under medical treatment. The research was conducted between 1st March – 30th June 2010, Pediatric Neurology Polyclinic of Ege University Faculty of Medicine Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Neurology Polyclinic of Behcet Uz Children’s Hospital. The children were consented to participate in the study and chosen with random sampling. The participants were aged between 9-17 years old who complied with the study criteria. The study sample to be 10 times the number of item taken from 130 children with epilepsy. The language validity of the scale was tested and the expert evaluations of the content were assessed with Kendall s W and Intra-Class Correlation analyses. The cronbach alpha coefficient were evaluated in order to establish the reliability of the Turkish adaptation of the scale. As for the item analysis, item total correlations and Pearson s product-moment coefficient were calculated. Results: The validity of the language was done of the scale. Specialists evaluation internal validity of scale was analyzed with Kendal’s W analysis and it was determined that specialists opinions are consistent (Kendall s W = .127, p=. 226 p 0.05; ICC= .83, p 0.001). The Cronbach Alpha coefficient was found to be .79. Item-total score correlations Pearson s product Moment correlation coefficients were reported to be between r = .34 and .69 which was positive and statistically meaningful. Conclusion: In light of the statistical analyses of validity and reliability, it was found that the Turkish adaptation of the Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale (CATIS) was a valid and reliable tool for children with epilepsy. It was further concluded that the scale would assist to evaluate the attitudes of children with chronic illnesses.