Investigation of the validity and reliability of the turkish form of the scale for evaluating the communication of family caregivers in chronic diseases

This methodologically designed study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of the Turkish form of the Family Caregiver Communication Tool- Chronic Illness. The universe of the study consisted of family caregivers of patients followed up in the Home Care Unit of Aksaray Training and Research Hospital between December 2023 and March 2024, and the sample consisted of 223 caregivers who agreed to participate in the research. A procedure including forward translation, synthesis, back translation, and expert assessment was followed for language validity. The study evaluated construct validity with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), criterion validity with the BAKAS Caregiving Impact Scale, Family Climate Scale, Family APGAR Scale, and reliability with the internal consistency coefficient and split-half reliability. The content validity index of the scale was determined as 0.91. It was determined that the model was in the perfect fit range according to the fit indices and reference values. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of the scale was found to be 0.956. A strong correlation of 0.98 was observed between the two sub-dimensions of the scale, which revealed that the sub-dimensions were highly correlated. As a result, the Turkish version of the Family Caregiver Communication Tool- Chronic Illness was determined to be valid and reliable.