Open Access

ARTICLE

Properties of a Scale of Self-Care Behaviors Facing COVID-19: An Exploratory Analysis in a Sample of University Students in Huanuco, Peru

Mely Ruiz-Aquino¹, Viter Gerson Carlos Trinidad^1,2, Aldo Alvarez-Risco³, Jaime A. Yáñez^4,5,*

1 Universidad de Huánuco, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Huánuco, Peru
2 EsSalud, Hospital Bicentenario de Jauja, Huancayo, Peru
3 Universidad de Lima, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economicas, Carrera de Negocios Internacionales, Lima, Peru
4 Universidad Norbert Wiener, Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Lima, Peru
5 Teoma Global, Gerencia Corporativa de Asuntos Científicos y Regulatorios, Lima, Peru

* Corresponding Author: Jaime A. Yáñez. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Impact and Expectations by COVID-19 Pandemic: Citizens and Firms Views)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2022, 24(6), 959-974. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2022.021172

Received 30 December 2021; Accepted 29 April 2022; Issue published 28 September 2022

Abstract

The general objective of this article was to construct and describe the psychometric properties of a scale of selfcare behaviors against COVID-19. It was a descriptive, cross-sectional, psychometric validation study of a scale created to measure self-care behaviors in relation to COVID-19 in a total sample of 333 probabilistically selected. Qualitative validity was evaluated by a review of 10 experts and quantitative validity by means of exploratory factor analysis using the principal components method. Internal consistency was measured with Cronbach’s alpha twice and the test-retest was evaluated by calculating the intraclass coefficient. The final scale consisted of 29 items. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test of adequacy yielded a value of 0.926, and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity X^² = 4611 with a p-value < 0.001. The variance explained by the three retained factors with a total of 29 items was 50.03%. The Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency evaluation yielded an initial value of 0.923 and, in a second evaluation, showed a value of 0.936. In addition, the intraclass coefficient in the test-retest yielded a value of 0.929. The instrument created and validated possessed the necessary conditions as a useful and reliable tool for measuring self-care behaviors in relation to COVID-19 in a population of university students and it is important that it can be applied in other regions of the world.

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Keywords

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