ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT FOR PROBLEM-FOCUSED COPING - RELIABILITY TEST OF APC - PART 1

A new self-report instrument, the Assessment Instrument of Problem-foc used Coping (APC) developed from qualitative interviews, is described. This instrument provides knowledge of the patients' own competence in coping with activities of daily living (ADL), the patients' own asses sment of what they experience as problems, and the extent to which the y are satisfied with their ADL. The purpose of the study was to test t he reliability of the instrument with regard to intra-rater reliabilit y and internal consistency. The study group comprised 40 patients with muscular weakness and other symptoms relating to the postpolio syndro me. The result showed an acceptable internal consistency (alpha 0.70), which confirms the construct validity of the instrument. The test-ret est showed that the stability over a period of time varied from low to high for a total of 28 items. At the same time, it is evident that th e instrument does not achieve the aim of being a good evaluation instr ument, because the stability over a period of time was unsatisfactory. The test-retest should be repeated with a larger test group in future research projects.