Cultural Adaptation and Linguistic Validation of the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire in Malaysia

• Main Authors: Hassali, M.A (Author), Horne, R. (Author), Neoh, C.F (Author), Saleem, F. (Author), Tan, C.S (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc. 2018
• Subjects: adult; Article; Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire; Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ); blood pressure monitoring; body mass; chronic disease; Chronic Disease; clinical practice; clinical research; controlled study; convergent validity; correlation coefficient; Cronbach alpha coefficient; Cross-Sectional Studies; cross-sectional study; cultural adaptation; cultural competence; Cultural Competency; diastolic blood pressure; discriminant validity; disease duration; female; Female; human; Humans; hypertension; Hypertension; internal consistency; linguistics; Linguistics; major clinical study; Malaysia; male; Male; medication adherence; Medication Adherence; medication compliance; middle aged; Middle Aged; priority journal; Psychometrics; psychometry; publication; questionnaire; reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; social adaptation; standards; statistics and numerical data; Surveys and Questionnaires; systolic blood pressure; test retest reliability; Translations; validation; validation process; validation study
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus

 Background: Low rate of adherence was found strongly associated with patients’ beliefs across the studies about chronic diseases with hypertension. A crucial move is needed to bridge the gap between appropriate assessment tools and local hypertensive patients’ medication adherence. Objective: To produce a translated version in Malay language of Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) that was “conceptually equivalent” to the original English version for use in local clinical practice and research. Methods: The forward translation process was conducted by two independent professional translators and back translation was done by two other independent translators. A reliability analysis was conducted on 238 conveniently selected hypertensive patients. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess test-retest reliability for the randomly selected 40 patients in a period of 2 weeks. Discriminant validity was tested through Necessity-Concerns differential, BMQ subscales, and other parameters. Results: The overall Cronbach alpha for the internal consistency was good (0.860). The subscales of the BMQ demonstrated adequate internal consistency, with Cronbach alpha value of 0.759 for Specific-Necessity, 0.762 for Specific Concern, 0.624 for General-Overuse, and 0.756 for General-Harm. The ICC was excellent (0.922). Discriminant validity revealed that BMQ Specific-Necessity score was significantly inversely correlated with the systolic blood pressure level. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels (P = 0.038; P = 0.05) were reported to be significantly correlated with the Necessity-Concerns differential, with Necessity score equal or exceeding Concerns score. Conclusions: The Malay-translated version of BMQ is a reliable and valid tool to assess patient belief about medication, especially medication adherence among the hypertensive patients in Malaysia. © 2018