Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version Family Care-giving Competence Scale for the Elderly

Abstract

Objective: To test the reliability and validity of Chinese version family care-giving competence scale for the elderly.

Methods: We enrolled 316 patients of advanced age who were admitted into a class A grade three hospital in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from January to March in 2014. With a ratio of 1∶1, we included the same number of family caregivers. Using the revised Chinese version family care-giving competence scale for the elderly, we conducted survey on included patients and their family caregivers. And the test on the reliability and validity of the scale was conducted.

Results: The revised Chinese version of family care-giving competence scale for the elderly included three dimensions, which were cognitive competence of family caregivers, family cohesion and family support capability, and 10 items. The content validity index (CVI) was 0.83, item content validity index (I-CVI) was 0.84; three common factors were found out, with a total contribution rate of 76.01%, and load value of each item for corresponding common factor was 0.501～0.803; positive correlation was found between cognitive competence and family cohesion (r=0.348, P＜0.01), between cognitive competence and family support capability (r=0.236, P＜0.01) and between family cohesion and family support capability (r=0.222, P＜0.01), and the three dimensions all had positive correlation with the total score of scale (r values were 0.789, 0.686 and 0.654 respectively, P＜0.01). The Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.780, and the range of Cronbach’s α of each dimension was 0.780～0.804; the test-retest reliability was 0.665～0.768; the split-half reliability was 0.745～0.890.

Conclusion: Chinese version family care-giving competence scale for the elderly has well reliability and validity and can be used for the evaluation of the family care-giving competence for the elderly.