Examination of the psychometric properties of the short and long forms of the Family Health Scale in Turkish culture.

Purpose: A healthy family is very important for community health. This study was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the short and long forms of the Family Health Scale (FHS) in Turkish culture.

Design And Methods: This is a cross-cultural adaptation and validation of instruments using a methodological approach. A total of 783 individuals aged between 18 and 65 from Turkey. The test-retest reliability analysis of FHS was performed with 64 participants after four weeks.

Results: Confirmed that the long form of the FHS was four-dimensional and the short form was one-dimensional. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the long and short forms fit well with the data, and it was determined that all fit indices were within acceptable limits. The Cronbach alpha of the long form of the FHS was 0.911, the cronbach alphas of the four sub-dimensions ranged from 0.833 to 0.908, and short form was 0.872. The pearson correlation coefficient between the forms was 0.919 (p = 0.000).

Conclusions: The results of the study revealed that the FHS is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used specifically for Turkish society.

Practice Implications: Nurses can use both forms of the FHS to examine family health and trends in family health in the population they serve. The FHS may be an important screening tool in health care settings and family intervention programs. Nurses can use FHS when providing health care so that children grow up in a healthy family.