Validity and reliability of the social support scale in chronic diseases–TR (SSCII-TR)

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Social Support Scale in Chronic Diseases (SSCII) Scale Turkish version that was developed by Hilbert-McAllister.MethodsThis was planning a methodological study. Research group consists of 163 older persons that accepted to participate in this study and who had a chronic disease. Data were collected in 15th June–15th August 2012 period from two homes for aged in İzmir Provinence. The necessary ethical approval was obtained from the institutions and each participant for research.ResultsSSCII Scale was translated to Turkish for language validity. For content validity, it was obtained of experts view and it was corrected according to expert's suggestions. For content validity, Kendall goodness-of-fit Correlation test was performed (Kendall's Wa = 0.167, χ2 = 49.337, df = 37, p = 0.084). In reliability and validity study, first of all, total item score correlation was examined. All items were upper than 0.20 correlation limit and there were a significant relationship between total item correlation score. Scale originally has 38 items in the latest version in Turkish. For reliability of the scale, it was performed the internal consistency analysis and it was find that Cronbach's alpha coefficient as 0.89. So, the scale has an acceptable level internal consistency coefficient. For the determining of scale's time stability, it was applied to initial 32 older persons after first survey. A significant relation found between test-retest scores (p = 0.000).ConclusionSSCII Scale Turkish version is a reliable and valid scale for the Turkish community.