Adapting a religious health fatalism measure for use in Muslim populations

Objective: Fatalism has been shown to influence health behaviors and outcomes among different populations. Our study reports on the adaptation of the Religious Health Fatalism Questionnaire for a Muslim population (RHFQ-M). Design: The original RHFQ wording was modified for a Muslim context and cognitively tested in 6 focus groups (FG). Items were revised by Muslim and non-Muslim healthcare researchers based on FG responses regarding the theological “accurateness” of the questions. The revised 9-item measure was administered to 58 English-speaking Muslim women (≥40 years old) recruited from two mosques in the Chicago area in order to assess psychometric properties. Main outcome measures: Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analyses were used to assess internal consistency and measure dimensionality, respectively. Statistical correlations with several fatalism and religiosity measures were computed to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Results: After testing with an ethnically and racially diverse group of Muslims, the RHFQ-M was found to be reliable (Cronbach’s α is 0.79), comprised of two distinct underlying subscales, and is correlated with, but distinct from, other measures of fatalism and Islamic religiosity. Conclusion: Our adapted measure, RHFQ-M, appears to accurately assess Islamic dimensions of fatalism and is ready for use in the health literature.