Appropriate self-care has an important role in improving the life level of diabetics and it has been proven that perceived barriers is one of the most contributory factors on the success self-carein diabetes. Thus, this study aimed to develop a scale for evaluating perceived barriers for self-care in middle-aged patients with diabetes mellitus type 2. The qualitative part of this mixed study was conducted in order to develop a preliminary item pool. In quantitative part, content and face validity, reliability (internal consistency and test-retest analysis), construct validity and factor analysis (exploratory and confirmatory) were performed for assessing psychometric properties of the scale. The 33-item questionnaire was developed through the qualitative phase. Exploratory factor analysis loaded a 23-item with a seven factor solution that jointly accounted for 64.75% of observed variance. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit to the data. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient showed excellent internal consistency (α=0.80), and test-retest of the scale with a 2-week interval indicated an appropriate stability for the scale (ICC=0.89). The findings showed that the designed questionnaire was a valid and reliable instrument for measuring perceived barriers for self-care in middle-aged patients with diabetes mellitus type 2. It is a short and easy to use questionnaire and contains the most significant diabetes related self-care behaviors.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus type 2, Middle-aged, Reliability, Self-care, Validity

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