The objective of this study was the development and validation of a scale to measure the self-care of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) in Korea.

Self-care scale was developed based on the self-care activities patients had to carry out in order to manage their COPD. The original scale contained 34 items rated along a five-point Likert scale and was reviewed by 18 professional nurses and 10 Korean patients with COPD for content validity. Subsequently, patients with COPD were asked to complete this 23-item scale and further tests were done with the 125 useable responses.

Factor analysis identified eight factors- “maintaining a clean air way”, “taking medication”, “support from family”, “preventing infection”, “managing symptoms”, “breathing exercising”, and “taking in nutrition”. The internal consistency of the total scale was Cronbach's alpha=0.7226. These eight factors explained 60.8% of total variance. There was correlation among Korean Self-Care Scale score, administration level, and knowledge level but there was no correlation to patients' satisfaction with medical services.

The 23 item questionnaire positively identified 8 areas defined important for COPD patients. Further studies are required to see how these can be integrated into patient education.