Abstract
PURPOSE: The management of diabetes comprises diet, pharmacological therapy, lifestyle counseling, patient education, and physical exercising, to achieve change in health behavior and control of the disease. However, a large proportion of diabetes patients does not adhere to treatment recommendations, mainly in the lifestyle aspect, which remains sedentary. Considering that self-efficacy is an essential determinant of health behaviors such as exercise practicing, the objective of the study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Brazilian Portuguese version of Bandura's Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (BESES) to be used in diabetes patients. METHODS: The BESES was initially completed by thirty diabetes patients to confirm the feasibility of the answers be provided by themselves. The psychometric properties (i.e., internal consistency, test-retest reproducibility, convergent validity, and ceiling and floor effects) were tested in other two-hundred diabetes patients (≥18 years old). RESULTS: The BESES achieved significant internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.92), substantial test-retest reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.83). The convergent validity was confirmed by negative correlations between BESES total scores and barriers to exercise total scores (ρ = -0.333; P = 0.018) and rate of perception exercise corrected by distance covered in the incremental shuttle walking test (ρ = -0.426; P = 0.002). Ceiling and floor effects were not found. In addition, physically active patients had BESES total scores higher compared to sedentary (56.8 ± 21.4 vs. 47.9 ± 20.0; P = 0.003). CONCLUSION: The Brazilian Portuguese version of the BESES showed adequate psychometric properties and proved to be valid for assessing the exercise self-efficacy in diabetes patients in Brazil.