Abstract
Foot diseases due to diabetes are increasing, so it is important to understand self-efficacy in foot self-care behaviors to help prevent such disease. The purpose of this study is to assess the validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the Foot Care Confidence Scale for Diabetics (J-FCCS).
We studied the validity and reliability of J-FCCS by interviewing 122 diabetics at the outpatient clinic of a medical school hospital. Ethical considerations were taken into account.
Validity was studied by 5 specialists in diabetes. Construct validity was evaluated by factor analysis of J-FCCS and the Self-Efficacy of Health Behavior, a tool already in use that measures feelings of self-efficacy for health behaviors in patients with diabetics. Criterion-related validity was studied by finding the correlation between the two scales. Reliability was studied by the split-half method and Cronbach's alpha coefficient to test for internal consistency.
One factor was extracted using the main factor method and a correlation coefficient of 0.34 was found to support criterion-related validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.95 and the correlation coefficient using the split-half method was 0.87, both of which support reliability.
These results show that the Japanese Foot Care Confidence Scale can be used to measure the self-efficacy of foot self-care behavior in diabetics.
