·To complete the compilation and reliability and validity analysis of the self-management scale for peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients during home dialysis operations.

·The preparation of the initial scale was based on patient interviews, expert consultation, literature review, and clinical experience in PD patient management. Convenient sampling was used to distribute questionnaires. Critical ratio method and homogeneity test were used to screen items. With the help of exploratory factor analysis to evaluate the validity of the structure, the number of common factors and items of the scale were finally determined, and the reliability of the scale was verified by the Cronbach′s α coefficient and the half coefficient.

·The initial scale was composed of 26 items in 5 dimensions, and 136 questionnaires were distributed and 132 valid questionnaires were collected. According to the results of the project analysis, except item 3 that did not meet the criteria for the corrected correlation between the item and the total score, commonality, and factor loading, all the other items met the selection criteria. Since this item was a key step in investigating the patients′ awareness of sterility, this item was retained for factor analysis after expert consultation. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO) of the initial questionnaire was 0.880, and the χ² value of Bartlett′s spherical test was 2 272.938 (P=0.000). The results suggested that the overall correlation matrix had common factors, which was suitable for factor analysis. According to the original intention of the initial design items of the scale, 5 common factors were limited and extracted, and the maximum variation method of orthogonal rotation axis was adopted, and finally items 7, 11, and 16 were deleted. According to the variable characteristics contained in each factor construct, the extracted common factors were named as “recognition of dialysis complications and adequacy evaluation” “peritoneal standardized operation” “drug management” “dietary management” and “dialysis effect evaluation and monitoring”, respectively, to form a formal questionnaire with 23 items in 5 dimensions. The eigenvalues of each dimension were 4.604, 3.286, 3.207, 2.817, and 2.140, and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 66.428%. The Cronbach′s α coefficient of the total scale was 0.930, and the half coefficient was 0.946.

·The self-management scale for PD patients has good reliability and validity, which can be used to evaluate the self-management ability of PD patients.