Nurses' knowledge and attitudes towards aged sexuality: validity and internal consistency of the Dutch version of the Aging Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale.

AIM

This paper reports a study testing the content and face validity and internal consistency of the Dutch version of the Aging Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale.

BACKGROUND

The ability of older residents to sexually express themselves is known to be influenced by the knowledge and attitudes of nursing home staff towards later-life sexuality. Although the Aging Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale is a widely used instrument to measure this, there is no validated, Dutch translation available.

DESIGN

Instrument development.

METHOD

Following a standard forward/backward translation into Dutch, the scale was further adapted for use in Flemish nursing home settings. Content and face validity and user-friendliness were assessed. The psychometric properties were determined by means of an exploratory study. Data were collected from March-April 2011 at eight Flemish nursing homes. Reliability was assessed using internal consistency and item-total correlations.

RESULTS

Both subscales of the Flemish adaptation showed acceptable content validity. The face validity and user-friendliness were deemed favourable with hardly any remarks given by the expert panel. The Cronbach's α was 0.80 and 0.88 for the knowledge and attitude subscales, respectively. The item-total correlations ranged from 0.21-0.48 for the knowledge section and from 0.09-0.68 for the attitude subscale.

CONCLUSION

We conclude from our study that the Dutch version of the scale has acceptable to good psychometric properties. The Flemish adaptation therefore seems to be a valuable instrument for studying nursing staff's knowledge and attitudes towards aged sexuality in Flanders.