Psychometric Evaluation of a Korean Version of the Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale (ARMS) in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale-Korean (ARMS-K) among Korean adults with type 2 diabetes.

METHODS

The Korean translated ARMS-K was back-translated to ensure translation equivalency. A cross-sectional survey was used to evaluate the psychometric properties with exploratory factor analysis for validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficients for reliability.

RESULTS

The factor analysis of construct validity identified 3 dimensions of the ARMS-K, explaining 54.7% of the total variance. The internal consistency reliability for the total instrument was acceptable with a Cronbach's alpha of .801. There was good correlation between the ARMS-K and 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-Korean version (r = -0.698), indicating that these scales measure theoretically related constructs as evidence of convergent validity. As evidence of known groups validity, there was a significant association between the ARMS-K score and glycemic control (P = .048), indicating that the good glycemic controlled group was more likely to have a higher rate of adherence to refills and medications than the poor glycemic controlled group.

CONCLUSIONS

These results support the cross-cultural applicability of the concepts underlying the ARMS-K. The ARMS-K can be used not only to assess adherence to refills and medications in Koreans with diabetes but also to examine the potential role of adherence to refills and medications in enhanced glycemic control of people with diabetes in a variety of clinical settings.