The Herth Hope Index: a validation study within a sample of Iranian patients with heart disease

Introduction: The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Persian version of the Herth Hope Index (HHI-Persian version) within a sample of Iranian patients with heart disease (HD). Methods: The present research used a clinical sample of HD patients hospitalized in a medical institution in Qazvin, Iran. A total of 500 patients were selected via convenience sampling method and were divided into two subsamples to test for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (n = 250) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n = 250) separately. Construct validity of the HHI-Persian version was evaluated using EFA and CFA. The reliability of the HHI-Persian version was first assessed using internal consistency (i.e., Cronbach's alpha) and construct reliability. Results: Exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation revealed that the index had a one factor consisting of 11 items (eigenvalue = 4.784) which explained 38.309% of the total variance. The results showed that the single factor consisting of 11 items has a good fit (χ 2 [42, n = 250] = 107.242,P < 0.001; χ 2 /df = 2.553, adjusted goodness-of-fit index [GFI] = 0.889, GFI = 0.929, comparative fit index = 0.938, normed fit index = 0.903, Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.918, incremental fit index = 0.918, and root mean square error of approximation = 0.079 [90% confidence interval = 0.079 (0.061-0.098)]). Cronbach's alpha and construct reliability were 0.856 and 0.878, respectively, which indicates the good reliability of the HHI. Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that the HHI-Persian version is a valid and reliable instrument that has potential utility in future research.