Abstract:
INTRODUCTION Engaging in regular exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle has shown an array of health benefits for many decades. Building confidence in maintaining an exercise routine is essential for success. To support individuals interested in exercise, the availability of appropriate measurement tools is vital. Bandura's Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (ESE) is an 18- item brief measure that assesses confidence in exercising regularly and is a valuable tool for measuring exercise beliefs. OBJECTIVES To translate and adapt the Banduras ESE scale into Sinhala language and examine its psychometric properties METHODS Data were collected from 225 women who were aged ≥18 years and had an interest in or a reason to watch their weight, in Panadura Medical Officer Health (MOH) Area, Sri Lanka. They were recruited using a purposive sampling method. Standard forward-backward translation was performed to translate the English version of ESE. The construct validity was tested using exploratory factor analysis. Reliability of the scale was determined by Cronbach’s alpha. Data were analysed using SPSS version 22.0. RESULTS Through exploratory factor analysis, 18-item ESE scale showed three factors with eigenvalues ranging from 1.392 to 9.409. The three-factor model explained 70.59% of total variance of the model. All the items in the scale were retained. The reliability of internal consistency, as assessed by Cronbach’s alpha, indicated interpersonal, competing and internal sub factors as 0.92, 0.91 and 0.89 respectively, which were above the threshold level of 0.7. CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS The Sinhala translation of ESE is a reliable and valid scale to assess the level of selfefficacy for exercise among Sinhala-speaking adult women in Sri Lanka.
