RESUMEN
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To develop the Health of Body, Mind and Spirit Scale (HBMSS), which was designed to assess drug abusers' health condition. BACKGROUND: Helping drug abusers to become healthy is important to healthcare professionals. However, no instrument exists to assess drug abusers' state of health. DESIGN: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was implemented to examine the validity of the HBMSS. METHODS: Data were collected from 2015-2016 at one drug abuse prevention centre in Taiwan. Participants (N = 320) who had abused drugs were invited to complete a preliminary 64-item version of the HBMSS. An item analysis, criterion-related validity analysis (using the Relapse Prediction Scale [RPS] score), split-half reliability testing and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the HBMSS. RESULTS: The final version of the HBMSS contained 15 items that were divided into three subscales: the health of the body, mind and spirit. Cronbach's α and split-half reliability coefficients were all above .85. The factor loading of each item was between .74-.95. The HBMSS had satisfactory criterion-related validity with the RPS score (r = -.50, p < .001). A second-order CFA was conducted on the HBMSS. The fit indexes were good, χ2 = 184.060, df = 94, χ2 /df = 1.958 (p = .000). CONCLUSIONS: The entire HBMSS and the subscales had satisfactory reliability and validity. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Healthcare professionals could use the HBMSS to evaluate the condition of the health of individuals with a drug abuse history.