Development of cultural belief scales for mammography screening.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To develop instruments to measure culturally related variables that may influence mammography screening behaviors in African American women. DESIGN: Instrumentation methodology. SETTING: Community organizations and public housing in the Indianapolis, IN, area. SAMPLE: 111 African American women with a mean age of 60.2 years and 64 Caucasian women with a mean age of 60 years. METHODS: After item development, scales were administered. Data were analyzed by factor analysis, item analysis via internal consistency reliability using Cronbach's alpha, and independent t tests and logistic regression analysis to test theoretical relationships. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Personal space preferences, health temporal orientation, and perceived personal control. FINDINGS: Space items were factored into interpersonal and physical scales. Temporal orientation items were loaded on one factor, creating a one-dimensional scale. Control items were factored into internal and external control scales. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the scales ranged from 0.76-0.88. Interpersonal space preference, health temporal orientation, and perceived internal control scales each were predictive of mammography screening adherence. CONCLUSIONS: The three tested scales were reliable and valid. Scales, on average, did not differ between African American and Caucasian populations. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: These scales may be useful in future investigations aimed at increasing mammography screening in African American and Caucasian women.

Development of a scale to measure information needs in cancer care.

Developing approaches to improve the use of scarce health care resources is of increasing importance in cancer care. Being able to target the provision of information to the primary needs of consumers ensures more productive use of expensive teaching time by health care professionals. Researchers and clinicians have used a variety of measurement techniques to assess the information needs of individuals with cancer at various points in their illness trajectory. The two most common types of scaling techniques used by researchers to measure information needs have been summative and differential. The advantages and disadvantages of using these types of measurements are evaluated. This article describes the development and pilot testing of a measure of the information needs in cancer patients that uses one type of differential scaling technique, Thurstone scaling. This measure was subsequently converted into a patient-friendly computerized program capable of helping consumers identify their information priorities before their medical visits. Individualized teaching may be guided by this new measurement technique in the future.