Psychometric properties of the Malay version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (M-DASS21) among nurses in public hospitals in the Klang Valley

Objectives: This study aims to examine the psychometric properties and validity of the Malay version of Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (M-DASS) among nurses at public hospitals in Klang Valley area of Kuala Lumpur. Methodology: The study is a cross-sectional study design. The questionnaire consists of two sections; participant’s socio-demographic information and response to emotional distress experienced by the participants for the past one week. The data were initially analyzed for normality distribution followed by descriptive statistics and further assessed using Explanatory (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Results : Initial analysis has shown one item of M-DASS21 was cross loaded between factors, hence been omitted, therefore, the DASS was left with 20 items. The items were one dimensional and loaded clearly in the designated factor. The M-DASS20 indicated a good internal consistency of Cronbach’s alpha values ≥0.70 for all subscale. Later, CFA was performed on four different models; it was proven that Model 3b of three – factor model M-DASS20 is a preferred fitting model than other proposed models. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that M-DASS is reliable and valid to be applied to the nurse’s populations.