LAUSR

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To develop the Health of Body, Mind and Spirit Scale (HBMSS), which was designed to assess drug abusers' health condition. BACKGROUND Helping drug abusers to become healthy is important to healthcare professionals. However, no instrument exists to assess drug abusers' state of health. DESIGN A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was implemented to examine the validity of the HBMSS. METHODS Data were collected from 2015-2016 at one drug abuse prevention centre in Taiwan. Participants (N = 320) who had abused drugs were invited to complete a preliminary 64-item version of the HBMSS. An item analysis, criterion-related validity analysis (using the Relapse Prediction Scale [RPS] score), split-half reliability testing and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the HBMSS. RESULTS The final version of the HBMSS contained 15 items that were divided into three subscales: the health of the body, mind and spirit. Cronbach's α and split-half reliability coefficients were all above .85. The factor loading of each item was between .74-.95. The HBMSS had satisfactory criterion-related validity with the RPS score (r = -.50, p < .001). A second-order CFA was conducted on the HBMSS. The fit indexes were good, χ2  = 184.060, df = 94, χ2 /df = 1.958 (p = .000). CONCLUSIONS The entire HBMSS and the subscales had satisfactory reliability and validity. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Healthcare professionals could use the HBMSS to evaluate the condition of the health of individuals with a drug abuse history.