title: The patient's experience of diabetes and its treatment: construction of an attitude scale by a semantic differential technique.
abstract: An instrument for measuring attitudes towards diabetes and self-care was constructed by a semantic differential technique. The instrument contained nine adjective pairs. Factor analysis classified these into four factors: self-esteem/autonomy, object evaluation, quality of life supporting factor and self-strength/vulnerability. The reliability coefficient of test-retest by 28 nurses/nurse tutors was 0.93. Fifty diabetic patients completed the attitude scale for testing the validity of the instrument. Male patients had a more positive attitude towards diabetes than females. Those who had had diabetes for less than 10 years were more positive than those with a longer duration of the disease. A higher degree of education, well-performed self-monitoring of blood glucose and achievement of good metabolic control were all associated with a more negative attitude towards diabetes. A group of nurses/nurse tutors who also completed the attitude scale had a more negative attitude towards diabetes than the investigated groups of patients.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Caring Sciences, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: K F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Wikblad
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Wibell
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Montin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012648:Self Care; D012649:Self Concept; D012659:Semantic Differential; D012737:Sex Factors