Verification of the Mandarin Chinese version of Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey Scale in community-dwelling older people.

BACKGROUND

Advance care planning (ACP) has become increasingly critical for older people. The Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey (ACPES) develops targeted interventions for older people by measuring ACP-related behaviours, while previous studies focus only on advance directives. Moreover, while ACPES has English and Dutch versions, it does not yet have a Mandarin Chinese version (ACPES-MC) that can be used for Chinese populations.

OBJECTIVES

To translate the ACPES into Mandarin Chinese and test its reliability and validity in community-dwelling older people with chronic diseases.

METHODS

The English version of the ACPES was translated into Mandarin Chinese using Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy. Four communities were recruited in central China (N = 450) by convenience sampling. Internal consistency and construct validity were used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the ACPES-MC.

RESULTS

The ACPES-MC consists of 34 items across five domains, with good internal consistency (0.817), with each dimension ranging from 0.606 to 0.881; exploratory factor analysis was distributed to four different factors and the total variance explained was 63.537%; and confirmatory factor analysis results showed that χ  = 3791.131 (p < .001), χ /df = 1.106, CFI = 0.980, IFI = 0.980, NFI = 0.827 and RMR = 0.027, indicating a good model fit to previous factor structures.

CONCLUSIONS

The ACPES-MC is an effective and reliable tool that can measure the ACP-related behaviour stage of community-dwelling older people and evaluate the effect of ACP intervention.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The ACPES-MC can be used in healthcare to identify potential ACP-related behaviours in community-dwelling older people with chronic diseases, including native and ethnic Chinese, evaluate their behaviour change stages and promote the application of ACP.