ICAVDEM: elaboration and validation of an instrument about beliefs on women with breast cancer

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of designing an instrument that measures life-after death beliefs of Mexican women diagnosed with breast cancer. This procedure had several stages; first the items were elaborated, based on a theoretical revision, in order to proceed to the experts review, then the application of the instrument to 177 Mexican women diagnosed with breast cancer and finally, the validation was performed by statistical analysis. The Cronbach’s alpha was calculated, obtaining a 0.853 coefficient, the and in order to know the validity, the Varimax rotation method was used, with which five dimensions of the scale were obtained. These Results demonstrate that ICAVDEM is valid and reliable to know the beliefs about what happens after a person dies, in this specific population.