Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
Psychometric Properties of the HIV-Related Fatigue Scale
Section snippets
Qualitative Study on HIV-Related Fatigue
Barroso (2001) conducted a qualitative study on the experience of HIV-related fatigue. A descriptive design was used to elicit in-depth descriptions of the symptom of fatigue from 31 participants who were recruited from a metropolitan area in the southeastern United States. The participants included 1 White female, 9 African American females, 7 White males, 13 African American males, and 1 African male who had recently emigrated from Uganda. The interview began with a statement asking the
Content Validity
Although the items selected for the HRFS were chosen because they corresponded to data from the qualitative work, it was still necessary to evaluate the content validity of the items as well as the entire tool. Using the procedure described by Lynn (1986), six participants rated each HRFS item on a scale from 1 (not relevant) to 4 (relevant and succinct as stated). Items were retained if 5 (of the 6) participants (83%) rated them as a 3 (relevant but in need of revision) or 4. All but two items
Readability
Four participants evaluated the ease of taking the HRFS—its directions, length, and clarity. All four of these participants found the scale easy to complete. Using the SMOG formula, which is the reading grade that a person must have reached if he or she is to fully understand the text, the reading level was found to be seventh grade.
A total of 54 participants completed the HRFS during the second psychometric testing phase. The typical participant was 41 years old (SD = 6.3), African American
Reliability Estimation
Although reliability would ultimately need to be evaluated for subscales or dimensions of the HRFS if they are found to exist, a preliminary assessment of reliability was conducted. First, the internal consistency (unidimensionality) of the instrument was assessed using Cronbach's (1951) coefficient alpha. The alpha on the entire instrument was σ = .94. The magnitude of this coefficient, although well in excess of the desired minimum of .70 for a newly developed tool (Nunnally, 1978), is due,
Summary
Atlhough the HRFS is in its early phases of development, at this point it has the potential to be a valuable addition to the measurement of this devastating component of the AIDS experience. Both face and content validity of the tool seem solidly determined, and early reliability estimations are good (internal consistency). The next step in the development and testing of the HRFS is to obtain data on the HRFS from several hundred participants so that the possible dimensions of the instrument
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing Faculty Research Opportunity Grant and a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing Summer Research Award. The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Sue Richard.
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2013, Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS CareCitation Excerpt :Initial psychometric testing of the HRFS in 54 people living with HIV has been reported in an article that included a list of all available fatigue scales that could be located to that point (Barroso & Lynn, 2002). Most of the scales used to measure fatigue today were derived from one of the scales in Table 1 of the article by Barroso and Lynn (2002). The HRFS has three main scales, which measure fatigue intensity, the responsiveness of fatigue to circumstances, and fatigue-related impairment of functioning (Barroso & Lynn, 2002; Pence, Barroso, Leserman, Harmon, & Salahuddin, 2008).