Development and preliminary validation of a questionnaire on the care needs of family carers of older individuals with disabilities in China: a mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND

Ensuring the wellness of older individuals with disabilities requires prioritising the care needs of their carers. However, current practice lacks validated tools to measure the needs of carers in home environments. Thus, this study aimed to create and test a questionnaire on the care needs of family carers of older people with disabilities in China.

METHODS

We used a standard development process to generate the questionnaire. The pilot testing included cognitive interviews to ensure interpretation as intended. Furthermore, we used a cross-sectional study method to conveniently select 640 Chinese family carers of older people with disabilities from August 1, 2022, to June 11, 2023, for face-to-face investigation. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) aided in project reduction and factor estimation, with 30 participants undergoing retest evaluations every two weeks. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) assessed the model's structural validity, while internal consistency and retest reliability validated its accuracy.

RESULTS

These tests established the model: content validity, item analysis and EFA. Six factors extracted from the initial analysis explained 62.891% of the observation variance. CFA showed good model fit, and the questionnaire had good reliability and validity. The final questionnaire included 21 items focusing on six dimensions: care assistance (three items), care environment (three items), care information (three items), formal support (four items), care ability (six items) and self-development (two items).

CONCLUSION

The care needs questionnaire effectively evaluates the needs of family carers in their caring activities.