title: The Malay Version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)-10 is a Reliable and Valid Measure for Stress among Nurses in Malaysia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) is widely used to assess stress perception. The aim of this study was to translate the original PSS-10 into Malay and assess the reliability and validity of the Malay version among nurses.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Malay version of the PSS-10 was distributed among 229 nurses from four government hospitals in Selangor State. Test-retest reliability and concurrent validity was conducted with 25 nurses with the Malay version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) 21. Cronbach's alpha, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), intraclass correlation coefficient and Pearson's r correlation coefficient were used to determine the psychometric properties of the Malay PSS-10.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two factor components were yielded through exploratory factor analysis with eigenvalues of 3.37 and 2.10, respectively. Both of the factors accounted for 54.6% of the variance. CFA yielded a two-factor structure with satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices [x2/df = 2.43; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.92, goodness-of-fit Index (GFI) = 0.94; standardised root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.07 and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.08 (90% CI = 0.07-0.09)]. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total items was 0.63 (0.82 for factor 1 and 0.72 for factor 2). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.81 (95% CI: 0.62-0.91) for test-retest reliability testing after seven days. The total score and the negative component of the PSS-10 correlated significantly with the stress component of the DASS-21: (r = 0.61,P< 0.001) and (r = 0.56,P< 0.004), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Malay version of the PSS-10 demonstrated a satisfactory level of validity and reliability to assess stress perception. Therefore, this questionnaire is valid in assessing stress perception among nurses in Malaysia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, University Kebangsaan, Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC), JalanYaakob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sukhvinder Singh
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sandhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, University Kebangsaan, Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC), JalanYaakob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Noor Hassim
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Ismail
authors.affiliation: Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine, Perdana University, MAEPS Building, MARDI Complex, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Krishna Gopal
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Rampal
keywords: Malaysia; nurses; reliability; stress; validity