The Norwegian, Danish and Dutch version of the Appraisal of Self-care Agency Scale; comparing reliability aspects.

This study was designed to test reliability aspects of a scale that was developed to measure the theoretical concept of self-care agency (Orem 1985). Equivalence and internal consistency of the scale were studied with populations of elderly patients and their nurses in The Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. Data was provided by 120 patients and 233 nurses. Not all criteria for reliability could be met for the Danish and the Norwegian versions of the scale. Nevertheless it is concluded that the results are indications for the reliability of the Dutch, as well as the Danish and Norwegian versions of the scale.