Psychometric Evaluation of the Chinese Version of Hypertension Self-care Profile

Background Valid and reliable assessment of the multidimensional self-care of patients with hypertension is important to tailor individualized care. The Hypertension Self-care Profile (HBP SCP), which comprises behavior, motivation, and self-efficacy scales, has been widely tested in various settings. Objective The aims of this study were to translate the HBP SCP into a Chinese version (HBP SCP-C) and evaluate its psychometric properties among Chinese adults with hypertension. Methods The HBP SCP was translated to Chinese using Cha's combined translation technique, and its content validity was examined by a panel of 7 experts. The psychometric properties of HBP SCP-C were tested in 200 Chinese patients with hypertension. Reliability tests included internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to explore the structure of HBP SCP-C. Discriminative validity was examined by the known-group approach. Results The HBP SCP-C demonstrated satisfactory content validity. The 2-factor structures of the behavior ("health promotion" and "habit modification") and self-efficacy ("intake management" and "health maintenance") scales and 1-factor structure of the motivation scale were determined. The behavior, motivation, and self-efficacy scales had Cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.86, 0.94, and 0.93, respectively, and test-retest reliabilities were 0.82 to 0.98, 0.90 to 0.98, and 0.81 to 0.95, respectively. Significant differences between patients with or without comorbidities in behavior (t = 2.55, P = .011), motivation (t = 3.25, P = .001), and self-efficacy (t = 3.02, P = .003) supported the discriminative validity of HBP SCP-C. Conclusions The HBP SCP-C could be a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating hypertension self-care in Chinese patients.