Spanish validation of the "self-perception of burden of care scale"

Objective: To validate the Spanish language version of the broad "self-perception of burden of care scale" by Cousineau et al. Methods: The sample consisted of 161 patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis at five dialysis centers in the city of Santiago - Chile. This scale was translated into Spanish and a pilot test was conducted with ten patients; after this procedure, we developed the final instrument to be subjected to the validation process. Results: The reliability of the scale was stable, with fluctuations of the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.903 and 0.915; we decided therefore to maintain the 25 original items within the Spanish version. Conclusion: The overall reliability of the instrument was 0.91, very close to that obtained in the original version (0.93).