[Design, construction and assessment of a scale to measure the attitude towards the self-medication in adolescents].

OBJECTIVE: An increase in the self-medication in youth has been observed in last decades. Although there are several instruments to measure the behavior of self-medication, none of them work is aimed to measure the underlying attitude. The goal of this study was to design and evaluate an attitude towards self-medication measurement scale in youth and adolescence and the assessment of its psychometric characteristics. METHODS: Development and validation of the Attitude towards self-medication Scale based on the data obtained in February 2012 of 665 adolescents with an average age of 15.5 years (D.T = 1.1) in educational centers of the Community of Madrid. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were computed. RESULTADOS: El AFE revelo tres factores latentes: Automedicacion y regulacion de emociones negativas (9 items), Automedicacion basada en pares y publicidad (5 items) y Automedicacion por decision propia (3 items), con adecuados indices de fiabilidad. En el AFC realizado sobre dos modelos de medida rivales, el modelo de 3 factores presento unos indices de ajuste mas satisfactorios. Los resultados de la aplicacion de este modelo para el AFC sobre una muestra aleatoria de la mitad de los sujetos del estudio tambien mostraron unos indices de ajuste aceptables. CONCLUSIONES: La escala propuesta tiene adecuadas propiedades psicometricas y aunque posee diferentes contenidos latentes muestra unidimensionalidad. Tanto la consistencia interna de la escala como de los tres factores que la forman son aceptables. Los indices de bondad de ajuste son adecuados.