Designing and Validating a Scale to Measure the Sense of Security in Hospitalized Patients

Background and purpose: Sense of security in patients is a prerequisite for developments in delivering appropriate health services. It can play a major role in finding solutions to improve the quality of care being delivered. The aim of this study was to design and validate a questionnaire to evaluate the sense of security in hospitalized patients. Materials and methods: This methodology was conducted in 900 patients in selected hospitals in Mazandaran province, Iran. A questionnaire consisting of 78 items and 11 factors based on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 was designed. The content validity of the scale was examined by content validity ratio and content validity index and construct validity was examined by exploratory factor analysis. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha. Results: Only six items were found with no appropriate content validity. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the first factor (11 items) had the maximum of factor loadings (27.66) and factor 11 (4items) exhibited the minimum factor loadings (1.54). The internal consistency in all items was found to be more than 0.80. Conclusion: The questionnaire designed is a valid and reliable scale for evaluating the sense of security in patients.