title: Standardization of the Maristán Scale of Informal Care in people with schizophrenia and other psychoses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  No instrument has been developed and validated across cultures to measure the degree of support provided by informal carers to people with schizophrenia. We aimed to develop such a measure.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Maristán Scale of Informal Care was developed directly from the views of patients with schizophrenia in six countries. Face-to-face interviews were carried out with participants and 103 were repeated after 30 days. Principal Axis Factoring followed by Promax rotation evaluated the structure of the scale. Horn's parallel combined with bootstrapping determined the number of factors. Cronbach's alpha estimated the scale's internal consistency and intra-class correlation its test-retest reliability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 164 interviews were undertaken, 103 with re-test. The Horn's Parallel Analysis and the analysis of the Promax rotation revealed one factor. Cronbach's alpha was 0.89. Intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.56 (95% CI 0.42-0.68) and this increased to 0.64 (95% CI 0.51-0.75) after removing two outlying values. Patients from Argentina recorded the lowest scores (poor informal support/care).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Maristán Scale of Informal Care is a reliable instrument to assess the degree of support provided by informal carers to people with schizophrenia across cultures. A confirmatory factor analysis is needed to evaluate the stability of its factor structure.
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Saldivia
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Torres-Gonzalez
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Runte-Geidel
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Xavier
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Grandon
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Antonioli
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Ballester
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Gibbons
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Melipillan
authors: J M
authors: JM
authors: Caldas
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Vicente
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Galende
authors: M
authors: M
authors: King
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001118:Argentina; D001938:Brazil; D002677:Chile; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D005791:Patient Care / Q000592:standards*; D011174:Portugal; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000628:therapy*; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cross-cultural; informal care; questionnaire; schizophrenia; standardization