Reliability and validity of the Champion's Health Belief Model Scale among Lithuanian women.

The rates of incidence and mortality of breast cancer in Lithuania are increasing and, although a mammography screening program is present, attendance rate is rather low. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the revised Champion's Health Belief Model Scale in measuring Lithuanian women's beliefs about breast cancer and screening. The data were collected from 350 female citizens 40 to 69 years old living in the urban district, and having no history of breast cancer and no mammogram in the past. The Champion's Health Belief Model Scale was translated to Lithuanian, validated by professional judges, back-translated to English, and pretested. Analysis included descriptive statistics of demographic data, content and construct validity, using factorial analysis, internal consistency, reliability estimates, and using the Cronbach alpha technique. Factor analysis yielded 11 factors related to breast self-examination and 7 factors to mammography. All items on each factor were from the same construct. The motivation subscale split into the items related to general concern about health and preventive health practices. Alpha coefficients ranged from.61 to.92. Only the mammography barrier item "having a routine mammogram or x-ray of the breast would make me worry about breast cancer" loaded as a separate factor in factor analysis and showed low correlation with other subscale items. Participants in the mammography group showed lower perceived susceptibility in 3 items and perceived severity in 1 item. They reported having not enough privacy for breast self-examination, and were less confident in their skills to perform it. However, the women in the nonparticipating mammography group showed lower results in one benefit-mammogram item, and had more barriers for mammography in comparison with the participating group. We conclude that the Champion's Health Belief Model Scale is a reliable and valid tool for measuring the screening beliefs toward breast cancer among Lithuanian women. The model gave better results when the motivation items were subdivided into subscales related to general concern about health and related to preventive health practices and were considered separately. Mammography barrier item "having a routine mammogram or x-ray of the breast would make me worry about breast cancer" was deleted from the Lithuanian Champion's Health Belief Model Scale.