BacgroundResilience has been defined as the capacity or the ability to rebound from and positively adapt to significant stressors, despite experiences of significant adversity or trauma. To capture to what extent an individual copes with stress in a resilient fashion the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) was developed. This tool was validated in people with chronic disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis using standard psychometric techniques of classical test theory, but not yet in patients with Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The aim of this study was to explore the psychometric properties of the Brief Resilient Coping Scale in patients with SLE using Rasch analysis.MethodThis study used cross-sectional data. The BRCS was administered to 232 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. The aspects analyzed were unidimensionality, local independence and differential item functioning (DIF) to construct an interpretative scale of scores with the Rasch model.ResultsRating scale mode (RSM) showed that the four categories used in the items of the BRCS are properly ordered. The four items provided a good fit to the polytomous Rasch model. Moreover, the parameters were sufficiently separated to measure resilience in patients with SLE. BRCS is a unidimensional scale (eigenvalue = 1.843) of resilience and the items were locally independent. There was no DIF between males and females in the sample. Only marginally significant differences depending on the level of education were found. The BRCS showed adequate discriminant validity between groups of scores.ConclusionsBRCS is a suitable scale for measuring resilience in patients with SLE. This scale might be useful for clinicians to obtain information concerning the degree of resilience that each patient has, allowing individuals with low resilience to be identified who need interventions aimed at developing coping skills.

The objective of this study was to test different exploratory solutions to the LupusQoL scale in a sample of Spanish patients with SLE using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch modeling, as well as to estimate the convergent validity. The χ test, RMSEA, CFI, and TLI were used to test the fit of the different exploratory structures with CFA. To estimate the parameters in the dimensions found, a rating scale Rasch multidimensional random coefficient multinomial logit model was used. The reliability of the scores was obtained with coefficient alpha and coefficient omega. The convergent validity was calculated using Spearman's rho. Four hundred and fifty patients participated but complete data were available for 223 subjects. The original version (UK) and the French version obtained the best fit, showing that the proposed original structure was the best solution for the structure of the LupusQoL scale in the Spanish sample. The multidimensional solution of eight dimensions was adequate, but item 8 in physical health, item 16 in intimate relations, and items 29 and 30 obtained mean squares>1.6. Internal consistency and coefficient omega of the scores in the eight domains were higher. The Spanish version of LupusQoL correlated strongly with the corresponding SLAQ, EQ5D analogic scale, and EQ5D domain. This analysis confirmed the structure of eight dimensions of the original version in patients with SLE.