psychometric examination of multiple sclerosis self-efficacy scale

abstract aim and background: the purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of multiple sclerosis self-efficacy scale (msss) in a sample population of iranian patients. methods and materials: this research is a descriptive-correlational study with a population of patients afflicted with ms from north khorasan and hamedan provinces. a number of 120 patients, who had referred to the north khorasan and hamadan ms associations at an interval of two months, were chosen as the sample population and completed the multiple sclerosis self-efficacy scale (msss) and depression, anxiety, stress scale (dass-21). the data collected was analyzed through factor analysis, cronbach’s alpha, guttmann split half quotient and pearson correlation, in spss17. findings: the analysis of the main factors with a promax rotation and a variance of 71/11 supported 3 factors of the main four ones. the negative correlation pattern in the multiple sclerosis self-efficacy dimensions with the sub-scales of depression and anxiety at dass scale was indicative of divergence validity. finally, the cronbach’s alpha with a range of 0.78-0.90 for the multiple sclerosis self-efficacy dimensions and the 0.86 quotient for the entire scale indicated the positive reliability of the scale. conclusions: themultiple sclerosis self-efficacy scale (msss) enjoyed an appropriate reliability and validity in iranian patients.