Background: At present, many aging assessment instruments have been developed at home and abroad, but the quality of care service in China's pension institutions is uneven, and there is still a lack of a unified tool for assessing the ability of the elderly uesd by evaluators of long-term care institutions.
Method: The Comprehensive Ability of Older People Assessment scale was completed by a sample of 971 older people from 4 long-term care facilities in China and the data were collected between April 2018-December 2019. One-way analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis were used to screen scale items, while focus group interviews were used to integrate the subjective and objective items. Confirmative factor analysis and expert judgment were applied to explore construct validity. Reliability was explored through internal consistency estimation using Cronbach’s alpha and homogeneity evaluation using corrected item-total correlations. Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis were used to segment the comprehensive ability assessment scores and discriminant function was established to determine the boundary value of each segment, with correlation analysis used to perform reverse verification.
Results: Factor analysis yielded 40 items with six dimensions, including ‘Mentation and cognitive,’ ‘Perception and communication,’ ‘Emotional problems,’ ‘Mental and behavioral problems,’ ‘Daily life and social participation,’ and ‘Skin and oral status’. The Cronbach’s α was 0.951 while the dimensions show a Cronbach’s α 0.760–0.946.
The rationality and scientificity of the scale was proved by the correlation analysis of reverse validation.
Conclusion: The 4-grade Comprehensive Ability of Older People Assessment Scale had good validity and reliability and should be considered for institutional assessors.