Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the European Heart Failure Self-Care Behavior Scale for Brazilian Portuguese.

OBJECTIVE To adapt and validate a Brazilian Portuguese version of the European Heart Failure Self-Care Behavior Scale. METHODS The cross-cultural adaptation (translation, synthesis, back-translation, expert committee review, and pretesting) and validation (assessment of face validity, content validity, and internal consistency reliability) were carried out in accordance with the literature. The European Heart Failure Self-Care Behavior Scale assesses key components of self-care: recognition of the signs and symptoms of decompensated heart failure (HF) and decision-making when these signs and symptoms arise. It comprises 12 items (range 12-60, where lower scores indicate better self-care). RESULTS The sample comprised 124 HF patients with a mean age of 62.3 ± 12 years. The Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency was 0.70 and the intraclass correlation coefficient for reproducibility was 0.87. CONCLUSION Face and content validity, internal consistency and reproducibility have lended validity and reliability for the use of the instrument in Brazil.