Aim.
This study was designed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Cognitive
Appraisal of Health Scale, specifically with prostate cancer patients.
Background.
Measurement of appraisal is considered a relatively new area in the health
studies literature. Cognitive appraisal of potentially stressful events becomes important
when individuals face a crisis such as a change in their health status. So far,
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has not been used to study the factor structure
of the Cognitive Appraisal of Health Scale.
Methods:
The structure of the questionnaire was analysed by exploratory factor
analysis,
CFA using structural equation modelling and an Analysis of Moment Structure
procedure with a sample of 133 patients with prostate cancer. Results.
The
results support the three-factor model for the Cognitive Appraisal of Health
Scale because it has robust structure and excellent goodness-of-fit indices. Several of
the 23 items were grouped into different factors from those in Kessler’s scale.
Conclusion: The use of the reduced version of Cognitive Appraisal of
Health Scale with men under health stress is recommended..
Keywords: Cognitive Appraisal of Health Scale, appraisal,
prostate cancer, nursing, confirmatory factor analysis
|