Development and evidence of validity of the HIV risk perception scale for young adults in a Hispanic-American context

Abstract

HIV/AIDS is a public health problem that is transmitted through risky sexual behavior. The literature suggests that the perception of HIV risk is a motivator for the prevention of risky sexual behaviors. There is no culturally adapted scale to assess HIV risk perception in the Hispanic-American population. The aim of this research was to develop a scale to assess HIV risk perception in Hispanic-American young adults. A cross-sectional instrumental design was used, with a sample of students from the Chilean city with the highest HIV rates. Participants (n = 524) were between 18 and 33 years old, of whom 51% were women, 84.4% said they were heterosexual and 43.7% said they had not been tested for HIV/AIDS. The final scale has 9 items and 2 dimensions: (1) perceived risk susceptibility and (2) perceived risk severity. The results showed that the identified structure provided adequate levels of reliability (ω > .8) and presented evidence of validity, based on the internal structure of the test (i.e., using ESEM) and on the relationship with other variables (i.e., the sexual risk behaviors scale). In addition, the results showed strong invariance between the scores for men and women. It is concluded that the HIV risk perception scale has adequate psychometric properties to assess HIV risk perception in equivalent samples.

Psychological Factors and Sexual Risk Behaviors: A Multidimensional Model Based on the Chilean Population

“…Higher scores suggest higher levels of perceived HIV risk. The scale presented evidence of validity based on the internal test structure and adequate levels of reliability [ 45 ].…”

Effect of perceived HIV risk on initiation of antiretroviral therapy during the universal test and treat era in South Africa

“…Baseline information including demographics, history of HIV testing and prior ART use was collected. Assessment of perceived risk of HIV infection was performed prior to HIV testing using a four-level scale, the levels being: definitely not going to acquire HIV, probably not going to acquire HIV, probably will become HIV-infected and definitely will become HIV-infected [ 15 , 16 ]. Subsequently a non-research trained HIV test counsellor conducted an HIV test according to the South African guidelines [ 17 ].…”

Risk Perception Scale of Disease Aggravation for older patients with non‐communicable diseases: Instrument development and cross‐sectional validation study

“…The questionnaire for measuring the perceived risk of skin cancer contains probability, susceptibility, severity, affective and behavioural dimensions (Morales-Sánchez et al, 2014). Susceptibility is regarded as the vulnerable level, which is stressed in the HIV risk perception scale for young adults (Mena-Chamorro et al, 2020). The risk perception scale for participants with lung cancer comprises worry, self-efficiency, perceived benefits of quitting smoke and perceived severity (Park et al, 2009) Patient or Public Contribution: Experts provided suggestions for revising the scale dimensions and items.…”