Validity and Reliability of Korean Version of Health Empowerment Scale (K-HES) for Older Adults

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Health Empowerment Scale (K-HES). METHODS: This was a methodological study, which included translation, pilot study, main study and expert verification. The K-HES was translated and modified based on the Diabetes Empowerment Scale-Short Form. Where diabetes was mentioned in the original tool, the K-HES expanded the items to cover all kinds of health conditions that affected health empowerment. Expert-verification, pilot-test and main study were conducted among 175 Korean elderly. RESULTS: The K-HES had an acceptable internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha of .80. Construct validity was tested using item analysis and convergent validity. Item analysis demonstrated that all of the corrected item to total correlation coefficients possessed good internal consistency (alpha > .60) except for item 1 (.32) and item 6 (.19). Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations between the total scores of the K-HES and the Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (Pearson's coefficient = .60). Content validity was supported by scale content validity index of .96 and item content validity index ranging from .96 to 1.0. CONCLUSION: The K-HES had acceptable validity and reliability. The brevity and ease of administration of the K-HES makes it a suitable tool for evaluating empowerment-based education programs targeted towards older populations.