DEVELOPMENT OF A HEART HEALTH ATTITUDE SCALE FOR ADULTS IN TURKEY: A SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY

BACKGROUND: Examining adults' attitudes toward heart health can be effective in identifying and preventing cardiovascular disease risk, educating, and treating individuals. AIM: This study was designed to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool for assessing adult individuals' attitudes toward heart health. METHODS: The sample for this methodological study consisted of 445 patients admitted to two universityhospitals in the provinces of Eski & scedil;ehir and Kocaeli, T & uuml;rkiye for cardiological disorders. The research data were collected using a Personal Information Form and Adult Heart Health Attitude Scale (AHHAS). For the validityand reliabilityof the scale, test-retestanalysis, content validity analysis, and item analyses were used, and exploratory and confirmatoryfactor analyses were performed, and structural equation modeling was used for internal consistency and construct validity. RESULTS: Based on expert opinion, the content validityindexof the scale was calculated as 0.86. In the exploratoryfactor analysis, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficientwas 0.643, and Bartlett's Test of Significance was chi 2=953.841, p<0.001. As a result of the factor analysis, the number of items was reduced from 45 to 28. The item-total correlation coefficients ranged from 0.430 to 0.864, leading to a 6-factor scale with 29 items, explaining 54.4% of the total variance.The factor loadings of the items ranged between 0.453 and 0.851, and Cronbach's alpha value was between 0.446 and 0.718 for the sub-factors, and 0.834 for the total scale. CONCLUSION: As a result of the analyses, itwas determined that AHHAS is a valid and reliable scale that can be used for the Turkish adult population. Healthcare providers can use AHHAS to determine adults' attitudes toward heart health.