Cross-cultural adaptation of the stress scale in people with Arterial Hypertension

Abstract

Objective: To adapt and validate the "Stress Scale for People with Arterial Hypertension" for its subsequent use in the assessment of stress in hypertensive patients.

Materials and methods: An observational, cross-sectional study was conducted. An anonymous and voluntary survey was administered. The sample consisted of 181 individuals (110 women and 71 men) residing in the city of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, with diagnosis of arterial hypertension, with a mean age of 55.34 years (SD = 13.93). The instrument included sociodemographic data and 17 Likert-type items.

Results: Using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with principal axis factoring and direct Oblimin rotation on the 17 items, a three-factor solution was established. This three-factor structure explained 66.61% of the total variance and showed an acceptable internal consistency index for the global scale (α = 0.94). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) yielded practical indices of (BBNFI = .91, BBNNFI = .93, and CFI = .95), demonstrating a satisfactory fit between the theoretical model and the empirical data, along with an RMSEA value of .08, indicating a reasonable fit.

Conclusions: The scale for measuring stress in individuals with arterial hypertension proved to be reliable and valid for assessing this variable in this population.

Keywords: Cross-cultural adaptation; Stress; Arterial hypertension; Validity.