Designing and Psychometric Evaluation of Breast Self-Examination Behavior Predicting Scale (BSEBPS)

Breast cancer is a public health challenge in most populations and a cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Lack of reliable and valid tools for assessing predicting factors, which influence on breast self-examination behavior of Iranian women, is obvious. This study aimed at designing and evaluating the psychometric properties of this instrument.

The purpose of this study was psychometric validation health action process approach (HAPA) scale for prediction of breast self-examination behavior among Iranian women over 40 years.

In this cross sectional study, the participants were registered women 40 years and older in urban health centers in Tehran, Iran. The 200 subjects were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Content and face validity have been verified by a panel of experts and participants. Using exploratory and structural equation modeling confirmatory factor analyses was conducted construct validity.

Using explanatory factor analysis, 8 factors of health action process approach model were identified with appropriate variance explained (67.18%). The HAPA had an acceptable fit to the observations (χ2 = 2.21, df = 3, χ2/df = 1.35, P < 0.001, RMSEA = 0.049 (CI = 0.044, 0.056; AGFI = 0.90; P = 0.452; PGFI = 0.13).

The results of the present study suggested an initial for validity and reliability of the HAPA-based breast self-examination among Iranian women.