Validation of the Slovenian version of short sense of coherence questionnaire (SOC-13) in multiple sclerosis patients
Article Category: Original scientific article
Published Online: Jan 21, 2019
Page range: 31 - 39
Received: Jul 06, 2018
Accepted: Dec 19, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2019-0004
Keywords
© 2019 National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Aim
To validate the Slovenian version (SOC-13-SVN) of Sense of Coherence 13-item instrument (SOC-13) in Slovenian multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.
Methods
A consecutive 134 Slovenian MS patients were enrolled in a cross-sectional study in 2013. The reliability of the SOC-13-SVN was assessed for internal consistency by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α), dimensionality by the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and criterion validity by Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between SOC-13-SVN global score and MSQOL-54 composite scores – Mental Health Composite score (MHC) and Physical Health Composite score (PHC).
Results
For the SOC-13-SVN instrument as a whole, internal consistency was high (αtotal=0.88) while it was low for three subscales (αcomprehensibility=0.79; αmanageability=0.66; αmeaningfulness=0.69). The results of the CFA confirmed a three-factor structure with good fit (RMSEA=0.059, CFI=0.953, SRMR=0.065), however, the correlations between the factors were very high (rcomprehensibility/manageability=0.938; rcomprehensibility/meaningfulness=0.811; rmanageability/meaningfulness=0.930). The criterion validity analysis showed a moderate positive strength of relationship between SOC-13-SVN global score and both MSQOL-54 composite scores (MHC: r=0.597, p<0.001; PHC: r=0.437, p<0.001).
Conclusion
Analysis of some psychometric properties confirmed that this instrument is a reliable and valid tool for use in Slovenian MS patients. Despite the three-dimensional structure of the instrument, the use of the global summary score is encouraged due to the low reliability of the subscale scores and high correlations between them.