TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing health-related resiliency in HIV+ Latin women
T2 - Preliminary psychometric findings
AU - Jimenez-Torres, Gladys J.
AU - Wojna, Valerie
AU - Rosario, Ernesto
AU - Hechevarría, Rosa
AU - Alemán-Batista, Ada M.
AU - Matos, Miriam Ríos
AU - Madan, Alok
AU - Skolasky, Richard L.
AU - Acevedo, Summer F.
N1 - Funding Information:
The study was funded by National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) grant U54RR026139, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) grant U54MD007587, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) S11NS046278 and U54NS43011 awarded to the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus, and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Center for Novel Therapeutics of HIV-associated Cognitive Disorders Pilot Project grant R25MH080661 part of the G12 RR003050 awarded to John Hopkins University. Additionally, this research was partially supported by the Menninger Clinic Foundation and McNair Medical Institute. Dr. Madan is a McNair Scholar. The study follows the guidelines on good publication practices. The study sponsors were not involved in any aspect of the research activities. Thus, the authors were independent of study sponsors in the context of the research. The authors have no other potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Jimenez-Torres et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2017/7
Y1 - 2017/7
N2 - Background HIV-associated vulnerabilities—especially those linked to psychological issues—and limited mental health–treatment resources have the potential to adversely affect the health statuses of individuals. The concept of resilience has been introduced in the literature to shift the emphasis from vulnerability to protective factors. Resilience, however, is an evolving construct and is measured in various ways, though rarely among underserved, minority populations. Herein, we present the preliminary psychometric properties of a sample of HIV-seropositive Puerto Rican women, measured using a newly developed health-related resilience scale. Methods and design The Resilience Scales for Children and Adolescents, an instrument with solid test construction properties, acted as a model in the development (in both English and Spanish) of the HRRS, providing the same dimensions and most of the same subscales. The present sample was nested within the Hispanic-Latino longitudinal cohort of women (HLLC), that is part of the NeuroAIDS Research Program at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Medical Sciences Campus (MSC). Forty-five consecutively recruited, HIV+ women from the HLLC completed a demographic survey, the HRRS, and the Beck Depression Inventory-I, Spanish version. Results The results demonstrate excellent overall internal consistency for the total HRRS score (α = 0.95). Each of the dimensional scores also evidenced acceptable internal consistency (α ≥ 0.88). All the dimensional and subscale content validity indices were above the 0.42 cut-off. Analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between the HRRS total score and BDI-I-S (r(45) = -0.453, p < 0.003). Conclusion Albeit preliminary in nature, the present study provides support for the HRRS as a measure to assess resilience among individuals living with chronic medical conditions. Minority populations, especially non-English speaking ones, are understudied across the field of medicine, and when efforts are made to include these patient groups, measurement is rarely tailored to their unique cultural and linguistic experiences. The HRRS is a measure that addresses these notable voids in the medical literature.
AB - Background HIV-associated vulnerabilities—especially those linked to psychological issues—and limited mental health–treatment resources have the potential to adversely affect the health statuses of individuals. The concept of resilience has been introduced in the literature to shift the emphasis from vulnerability to protective factors. Resilience, however, is an evolving construct and is measured in various ways, though rarely among underserved, minority populations. Herein, we present the preliminary psychometric properties of a sample of HIV-seropositive Puerto Rican women, measured using a newly developed health-related resilience scale. Methods and design The Resilience Scales for Children and Adolescents, an instrument with solid test construction properties, acted as a model in the development (in both English and Spanish) of the HRRS, providing the same dimensions and most of the same subscales. The present sample was nested within the Hispanic-Latino longitudinal cohort of women (HLLC), that is part of the NeuroAIDS Research Program at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Medical Sciences Campus (MSC). Forty-five consecutively recruited, HIV+ women from the HLLC completed a demographic survey, the HRRS, and the Beck Depression Inventory-I, Spanish version. Results The results demonstrate excellent overall internal consistency for the total HRRS score (α = 0.95). Each of the dimensional scores also evidenced acceptable internal consistency (α ≥ 0.88). All the dimensional and subscale content validity indices were above the 0.42 cut-off. Analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between the HRRS total score and BDI-I-S (r(45) = -0.453, p < 0.003). Conclusion Albeit preliminary in nature, the present study provides support for the HRRS as a measure to assess resilience among individuals living with chronic medical conditions. Minority populations, especially non-English speaking ones, are understudied across the field of medicine, and when efforts are made to include these patient groups, measurement is rarely tailored to their unique cultural and linguistic experiences. The HRRS is a measure that addresses these notable voids in the medical literature.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030431261&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85030431261&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0181253
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0181253
M3 - Article
C2 - 28723939
AN - SCOPUS:85030431261
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 12
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 7
M1 - e0181253
ER -