Self-Management Efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis

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Abstract

Psoriasis is a complex, systemic autoimmune condition that demands rigorous, long-term patient involvement to manage effectively. While clinical treatments are essential, a patient's belief in their own ability to manage their condition—known as Self-management efficacy—plays a pivotal role in their overall health outcomes. The Self-management efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis (SMEQ-PSO) was developed to quantify this specific psychological construct. By providing a standardized metric, this instrument allows researchers and healthcare providers to assess how confident patients feel about navigating the multifaceted challenges of their disease.

Comprising 28 items distributed across five distinct dimensions, the SMEQ-PSO captures a holistic picture of a patient's self-efficacy. It moves beyond mere medication adherence to evaluate confidence in psychosocial adaptation, daily life management, skin care, disease knowledge, and treatment navigation. This comprehensive approach ensures that the scale measures the full spectrum of behaviors required for effective Chronic disease management.

The development of this scale represents a significant advancement in dermatological health psychology. By utilizing the SMEQ-PSO, clinicians can identify specific areas where a patient lacks confidence and tailor psychoeducational interventions accordingly. Ultimately, improving Self-management efficacy through targeted support can lead to reduced disease recurrence, better management of comorbidities, and a substantially improved quality of life for individuals living with Psoriasis.

📊 Psychometric Scorecard

Items Count
28
Structure
Multidimensional
Cronbach's α
0.93
Validation Country
📍 China

Authors

🏛 Department of Public Service, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China.

🏛 Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China.

👤 Zhen Yang
🏛 Department of Public Service, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China.

🏛 Department of Public Service, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China.

Purpose

The primary objective behind creating the SMEQ-PSO was to bridge a significant gap in dermatological and health psychology assessment. Historically, while medication adherence in Psoriasis has been studied extensively, the broader spectrum of self-management—encompassing lifestyle modifications, emotional regulation, and symptom monitoring—lacked a dedicated efficacy measure. Clinicians need to know not just what patients are doing, but how capable they feel doing it.

This scale equips providers with a targeted tool to identify patients who may struggle with self-efficacy, thereby facilitating highly personalized, psychoeducational interventions designed to boost their confidence. Because Psoriasis is heavily influenced by extrinsic risk factors like stress and lifestyle, measuring and subsequently enhancing Self-management efficacy is critical for preventing flare-ups and improving long-term clinical outcomes.

Construct

Grounded heavily in Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory, the construct of Self-management efficacy represents a domain-specific manifestation of general self-efficacy. In the context of the SMEQ-PSO, it reflects a patient's internalized confidence in their capacity to execute the behaviors necessary to control Psoriasis flare-ups, manage systemic comorbidities, and maintain their quality of life.

The instrument operationalizes this construct across five distinct but interrelated dimensions: psychosocial adaptation, daily life management, skin care routines, disease knowledge acquisition, and treatment adherence. This multidimensional approach acknowledges that managing a chronic illness is not merely a medical task, but a profound psychosocial challenge requiring resilience, education, and proactive behavioral regulation.

Validity

To establish the instrument's validity, the developers employed a rigorous, multi-stage psychometric evaluation. Content validity was initially secured through expert consensus, yielding an exceptionally strong content validity index of 0.976, indicating that the items highly accurately represent the target construct.

Furthermore, criterion validity was established by mapping the new scale against the established General Self-Efficacy Scale, demonstrating that while the SMEQ-PSO captures unique, disease-specific variance, it remains theoretically anchored to broader self-efficacy constructs. Convergent and discriminant validities were also confirmed using average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) metrics, ensuring that the subscales measure distinct facets of efficacy without excessive conceptual overlap.

Convergent & Discriminant Validation Correlations

Reference Instrument Correlation Coefficient (r)
General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES)

Reliability

From a reliability standpoint, the SMEQ-PSO demonstrates excellent psychometric stability, making it highly suitable for both cross-sectional research and longitudinal clinical monitoring. The internal consistency of the overall 28-item scale is robust, evidenced by a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.930, which sits well above the standard threshold for clinical utility and indicates that the items reliably measure the same underlying concept.

Additionally, the scale's temporal stability was confirmed via a two-week test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.768, indicating that the construct remains relatively stable over short periods unless an intervention occurs. A split-half reliability of 0.952 further underscores the strong homogeneity of the items across the instrument.

Factor Analysis

The structural integrity of the SMEQ-PSO was evaluated using a sequential factor analytic approach. An initial exploratory factor analysis successfully extracted a five-factor solution that accounted for a substantial 62.039% of the total variance in patient responses. This empirical structure perfectly mirrored the theoretical dimensions of psychosocial, daily life, skin, knowledge, and treatment management.

Following this exploratory phase, a confirmatory factor analysis was deployed using structural equation modeling to test the fit of this five-factor model against the empirical data. The results confirmed that the multidimensional architecture of the scale is both statistically sound and theoretically meaningful, providing a solid foundation for scoring the five distinct subscales.

Subscales

Subscale Items Description
Self-efficacy of psychosocial adaptation Measures the patient's confidence in managing the emotional and social burdens associated with Psoriasis.
Self-efficacy of daily life management Measures the patient's confidence in maintaining healthy lifestyle habits, such as diet and exercise, to mitigate disease triggers.
Self-efficacy of skin management Measures the patient's confidence in performing routine skin care and managing dermatological symptoms.
Self-efficacy of disease knowledge management Measures the patient's confidence in acquiring, understanding, and applying medical information related to their condition.
Self-efficacy of disease treatment management Measures the patient's confidence in adhering to prescribed medical treatments and navigating the healthcare system.

Instrument

Test Type Self-report questionnaire
Format 28 items, 5-point Likert scale
Scoring Items are scored from 1 (completely unconfident) to 5 (absolutely completely confident). Higher total scores indicate better Self-management efficacy.
Language Chinese
Population Medical patients, Adults
Age Group 18 years and older
Administration Self-administered

Scoring & Interpretation Guidelines

Scoring Instructions Higher scores indicate better Self-management efficacy.

Self-Management Efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis Items

📋 Items are currently not available

The individual items of this scale are not publicly available. Researchers interested in using this instrument should contact the original authors directly to request the scale materials.

Sample

The validation sample consisted of 440 adult patients diagnosed with Psoriasis, recruited via convenience sampling from two tertiary hospitals in Shenyang, China. The cohort was predominantly male (62.3%) with a mean age of 42.78 years (SD = 14.45) and an average disease duration of 15.68 years.

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References
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Cite this article

Mohammed looti (2026). Self-Management Efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Retrieved from https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/self-management-efficacy-questionnaire-among-patients-with-psoriasis/

Mohammed looti. "Self-Management Efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 14 Aug. 2026, https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/self-management-efficacy-questionnaire-among-patients-with-psoriasis/.

Mohammed looti. "Self-Management Efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 2026. https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/self-management-efficacy-questionnaire-among-patients-with-psoriasis/.

Mohammed looti (2026) 'Self-Management Efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis', PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Available at: https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/self-management-efficacy-questionnaire-among-patients-with-psoriasis/.

[1] Mohammed looti, "Self-Management Efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis," PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, vol. X, no. Y, ص Z-Z, August, 2026.

Mohammed looti. Self-Management Efficacy Questionnaire among Patients with Psoriasis. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. 2026;vol(issue):pages.

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