PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF THE ADHERENCE TO REFILLS AND MEDICATIONS SCALE (ARMS) AMONG ADULTS PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC DISEASE: THE LEBANESE VERSION

Abstract

Non-adherence to medications can lead to several consequences that range from waste of drugs to death. Consequently, a tool to assess the adherence to chronic medication is a necessity. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to conduct the translation and cross-cultural adaptation process of ARMS into the Lebanese Arabic version (ARMS-A) and to examine its psychometric properties (validity and reliability assessment). Design: The original English version of ARMS was translated into Arabic based on the established guidelines. Eight expert panels were involved in content validation, while face validation was conducted on twenty participants during pilot testing. A cross-sectional survey was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of ARMS-A on 135 participants. Participants: Adults patients on chronic medications were invited to be part of the study. Main outcome measures: Overall content and universal face validity indexes were determined in addition to the exploratory factors and Cronbach’s alpha. Key Results: The overall content validity index was 0.91, and the universal face validity index was also 0.91. For the exploratory factor analysis, two factors were extracted. The first one consisted of 6 items and explained 43.9% of the variance. The second one also comprised of 6 items with a variance of 9.59%. For internal consistency and reliability, the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.877. Conclusion: ARMS-A appears to be a valid and reliable medication adherence tool to assess the adherence of chronic medications among native Arabic speaking patient with chronic diseases.