Healthcare needs scales for patients with HIV/AIDS: construct validation.

The authors report on the quantitative analysis phase in the development of the Healthcare Needs Scales for Patients with HIV/AIDS (Berk, Poe, & Bagis-Smith, 1992). The scales were administered to a cross-sectional sample of 386 patients from hospital, outpatient HIV clinic, homecare, and long-term care settings. The authors collected construct validity evidence based on a factor analysis and comprehensive item, subscale, and scale analyses, concurrent validity evidence of primary caretakers serving as proxies for hospital patients, and internal consistency reliability evidence. The results produced an instrument for diagnosing the psychosocial and physiological needs of the target population.