Paper
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
698
Psychometric Properties of a New Measure of Caregiver's Perception of Community Healthcare Services for Persons with Huntington Disease
Valmi D. Sousa, PhD, APRN, BC1, Janet K. Williams, RN, PhD, FAAN2, Jack J. Barnett, PhD3, and David A. Reed, PhD2. (1) College of Health and Human Services, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA, (2) College of Nursing, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, (3) School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
| Learning Objective #1: learn about the development and testing of a new measure of caregiver's perception of community health care services for people with huntington disease. |
| Learning Objective #2: learn about the psychometric properties of the new measure. |
Huntington disease is a progressive genetic disease that leads to disruptive behavioral and physical impairments. Persons with the condition and their caregivers need appropriate and accessible health care services to help them to cope with and to manage the disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a scale to measure caregiver’s perception of community health care services (CPCHCS) for persons with Huntington disease. A methodological correlational design, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, was used to develop and test the initial content validity, reliability, and dimensionality of the scale. Samples consisted of 9 clinical experts and 245 family caregivers. The Content validity index of the CPCHCS (agreement among experts) was 79 %. In the caregivers’ sample, the overall estimate of reliability (α) of the scale was .83. Factor analysis using principal components analysis with varimax factor rotation suggested that three interpretable factors underlie the scale. Factor 1 had α =.82, eigenvalue of 4.67, and explained 33.42% of the variance. Factor 2 had α = .62, eigenvalue of 1.68, and explained 12.02% of the variance. And, Factor 3 had α =.73, eigenvalue of 1.45, and explained 10.39% of the variance. Item-analysis and factor analytic procedures suggested that the item 1, 4, and 6 needs to be revised or deleted from the scale to meet the criteria necessary for internal consistency and homogeneity, which requires an average inter-item correlation of at least r = .30, all item-to-total correlations ranging between r = .30 and r = .70, and minimum criteria of α, set at least .70 for each one of the three interpretable factors. After careful revision, the scale must be tested in other samples of family informal caregivers of person with HD, and the psychometric properties of the scale must be further examined.