title: Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Worry Scale.
abstract: This article presents the findings on the development and validation of a Chinese version of the Worry Scale (WS), a measure of worry about hypoglycemia. A previously developed 16-item WS was back-translated and applied to 117 Chinese diabetic patients living in Hong Kong. An iterative process of factor and item analyses identified a unidimensional 10-item Chinese WS (WS-10), which accounted for 57.15% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha was 0.91. Strong correlation was demonstrated between the WS-10 and WS with 16 items (r = 0.97, p = 0.000). Comparing the level of worry about hypoglycemia between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic patients established a contrast-group validity of the WS-10 (p = 0.002). Criterion validity was established by correlating the WS-10 with the respondents' glycosylated hemoglobin (r = -0.29, p = 0.002). Test-retest reliability using intraclass correlation (ICC) was established, ICC(1, 1) = 0.68. As the clinical administration of this scale takes less than 5 min, the Chinese WS-10 offers a useful instrument to identify patients with high levels of worry about hypoglycemia for clinical and education interventions. It also provides public health nurses with a reliable and valid prepost measure of intervention effectiveness. The Chinese WS-10 will facilitate further research about the effects of worry concerning hypoglycemia on self-care behaviors with the Chinese populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin. annshui@cuhk.edu.hk
authors.forename: Ann Tak-Ying
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Shiu
authors.forename: Rebecca Yee-Man
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D002681:China; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000188:drug therapy; D004522:Educational Status; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007003:Hypoglycemia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D007328:Insulin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D014177:Translations
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin