The Third Time’s a Charm: Psychometric Testing and Update of the Atlanta Heart Failure Knowledge Test

Background and Objective: Since first being published in 2009, the Atlanta Heart Failure Knowledge Test (AHFKT) has proven a reliable and valid instrument and has been used in multiple studies. Given advances in heart failure (HF) self-care, we proposed to reevaluate the psychometric properties of the AHFKTv2 across these recent studies and update the instrument. Methods: Demographic, clinical, and baseline AHFKTv2 data from 4 intervention studies in persons with HF were combined for this analysis (N = 284). The 30 questions of the AHFKT are focused on 5 HF self-care knowledge domains: pathophysiology, nutrition, behavior, medications, and symptoms. Characteristics of the sample were analyzed using descriptive statistics; validity testing with t tests and Mann-Whitney 2-group tests and Pearson r and Spearman ρ correlations; and reliability calculations and factor analysis were performed based on tetrachoric correlations. Results: Participants were 22 to 84 years of age, 66% were African American, 63% were male, and 94% had New York Heart Association class II to III HF. Mean AHFKT score was 80.6% (±11%). Hypotheses that higher levels of knowledge would be associated with higher education level (t = −2.7, P
Source: Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing - Category: Nursing Tags: ARTICLES: Heart Failure Source Type: research