Development of scales to measure beliefs of diabetic patients.

In this article health belief concepts are identified and previous attempts to construct scales for measuring these concepts are critiqued. Using an initial sample of 156 diabetic patients, factor analytic techniques were used to develop measures of the basic concepts of the Health Belief Model. The derived scales from this sample were cross-validated on a second sample of 92 diabetic patients. The scales were tested for unidimensionality, internal and external consistency, and stability across both samples. The application of these scales to nursing research and practice are discussed.