Kristjansson B, Breithaupt K, McDowell I
Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Int Psychogeriatr. 2001;13 Supp 1:125-35. doi: 10.1017/s1041610202008062.
Lack of social support is an important risk factor for disability, psychiatric illness, cognitive impairment, institutionalization, and mortality. Social networks are also important for the caregiving and emotional support that elderly people need to allow them to function well in the community. This article details the development and validation of an index of the instrumental support available to older community residents in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA). Preliminary item review, internal consistency, and exploratory factor analysis were carried out on a random half of the sample. The second half of the sample was used for cross-validation; internal consistency, exploratory factor analysis, and item response theory analysis were carried out. The final scale had six items; alpha internal consistency was 0.76 and IRT reliability was 0.85. A one-factor solution was most easily interpretable. IRT analyses showed that the scale was homogeneous and that most items were highly discriminating. The instrumental support scale also had a high correlation with size of social network; it was related to marital status and gender, and predicted institutionalization between the two phases of the study.
缺乏社会支持是导致残疾、精神疾病、认知障碍、入住养老机构以及死亡的重要风险因素。社交网络对于老年人所需的照料和情感支持也很重要，这些支持能让他们在社区中良好生活。本文详细介绍了加拿大健康与老龄化研究（CSHA）中用于衡量老年社区居民可获得的工具性支持的一个指数的编制与验证过程。对样本的随机一半进行了初步项目审查、内部一致性分析和探索性因素分析。样本的另一半用于交叉验证，进行了内部一致性分析、探索性因素分析和项目反应理论分析。最终量表有六个项目；α内部一致性为0.76，项目反应理论信度为0.85。单因素解决方案最易于解释。项目反应理论分析表明该量表具有同质性，且大多数项目具有高度区分性。工具性支持量表与社交网络规模也具有高度相关性；它与婚姻状况和性别有关，并在研究的两个阶段之间预测了入住养老机构的情况。
