Construction of perceived severity of illness assessment tool in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

The purpose of this study was to construct a questionnaire for evaluate  severity of  illness  in patientswith systemic lupus  erythematosus . Data collection was conducted  from 150 SLE patients who come forfollow - up  at  out patient department in  Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University during June to July2008. The results  of study are as follow:Patients with SLE  was perception of illness severity at  moderate level ( = 69.95, SD =45.55).Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the construct validity showed six  factors of  were (1)Social:  6 items, = 0.89;  (2) Physical:  8 items, α= 0.87; (3) psychological:  7 items, α= 0.92 and (4)Body image:  4 items, α= 0.83; (5)  bodily pain: 2 items, α= 0.67 and (6) Immune: 2 items, α= 0.45. The29 items showed high reliability with a standardized alpha coefficient of  0.93. Concurrent validity with  SF-36.  The physical dimension of constructed  tool was negatively correlated with  SF-36  PCS (r = - 0.38, p<0.01 )  and negatively correlated with  SF-36  MCS (r = - 0.43, P  < 0.01) .  The psychologicaldimension, social dimension,  body image  dimension, bodily pain dimension was negatively correlated withSF-36  MCS (r = -0.75, p <0.01; r = - 0.70, p < 0.01; r = - 0.50, p < 0.01 and r = - 0.43, p <0.01respectively). The low immune dimension was negatively correlated with  SF-36 PCS (r = - 0.24, p < 0.01)These findings indicated a preliminary evidence for the validity and reliability of the constructed  tool.