Measuring Beliefs Related to Colorectal Cancer Screening Behavior among Iranian Middle-Aged and Elderly: a Psychometric Study

Abstract

The annual fecal occult blood test is a very important method for colorectal cancer early detection through screening.<br />Our aim was to assess psychometrics of instrument measuring beliefs related to fecal occult blood test uptake among<br />Iranian middle-aged and elderly, based on the theory of planned behavior. This cross-sectional study was performed on<br />150 middle-aged and elderly who were randomly selected to participate voluntarily in Kermanshah, in the west of Iran.<br />The studied constructs included attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control, and behavior intention. Data<br />were analyzed with SPSS software (ver. 21.0). The mean age of the respondents was 59.1 years [SD: 6.73], in the range<br />from 50 to 73. All of the loads of the exploratory factorial analysis were larger than 0.4. KMO was calculated as 0.756.<br />Overall, four factors under investigation accounted for 82% of the variance in the hypothesized model. Cronbach's<br />alpha for the measured constructs of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control, and behavior intention<br />were 0.92, 0.88, 0.70 and 0.88, respectively. Our findings indicated the final scale to be adequately reliable and valid for<br />measurement of these constructs for prediction of fecal occult blood test uptake among Iranian middle-aged and elderly.