Abstract
PurposeThe Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale – Dementia (SCQOLS-D), developed based on the Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale (SCQOLS), comprises 5 domains and 63 items. It has been shown to be a valid and reliable measurement scale. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a short form of the SCQOLS-D.MethodsData were collected from 102 family caregivers of person with dementia in Singapore. Candidate items were shortlisted by factor analysis, correlation and best subset regression. Shortlisted items with the best measurement properties including correlations with the long form and other established measures, internal consistency and test-retest reliability were identified. Their properties were compared with the corresponding domain scores in the long form of SCQOLS-D and a short form of the SCQOLS. A total score based on the average of the domain scores was also evaluated.ResultsA total of fifteen items, two to four items per domain, were selected. The total and domain scores generated from these items strongly correlated with the corresponding score of the long form (correlation coefficients: 0.83–0.97). The short and long forms had comparable correlation coefficients with Negative Personal Impact and Positive Personal Impact measures. The short form showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.84–0.92) and test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient: 0.72–0.93). These 15 items form the SCQOLS-D-15, an abbreviated version of the SCQOLS-D.ConclusionThe SCQOLS-D-15 showed acceptable measurement properties. This serves as an alternative to the SCQOLS-D to provide rapid assessment of the overall and domain-specific quality of life of caregivers of persons with dementia.
Highlights
Dementia affects the quality of life (QoL) of the patients and their family caregivers
These instruments were mainly developed in western countries, including the Alzheimer’s Carer’s Quality of Life Inventory (ACQLI) in the UK [6], the caregiver QoL scale in the PIXEL dementia study (PIXEL) in France [7] and the Caregiver-targeted Quality of Life Measure (CGQOL) in the USA [8]
The Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale – Dementia (SCQOLS-D) were recently developed for Asian caregivers of person with dementia (PWD) [12]. This is an extension of the Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale (SCQOLS) [13, 14] that was developed using data from caregivers of cancer patients by adding 12 dementia-specific items derived from the three abovementioned dementia-specific instruments [6,7,8] or solicited from semi-structured interviews with caregivers of PWD [12]
Summary
Dementia affects the quality of life (QoL) of the patients and their family caregivers (caregivers in short). There is a demand of dementia-specific instruments to evaluate the QoL of caregivers of PWD These instruments were mainly developed in western countries, including the Alzheimer’s Carer’s Quality of Life Inventory (ACQLI) in the UK [6], the caregiver QoL scale in the PIXEL dementia study (PIXEL) in France [7] and the Caregiver-targeted Quality of Life Measure (CGQOL) in the USA [8]. They may not be adequate for Asian caregivers due to socio-cultural differences [9]. This is an extension of the Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale (SCQOLS) [13, 14] that was developed using data from caregivers of cancer patients by adding 12 dementia-specific items derived from the three abovementioned dementia-specific instruments [6,7,8] or solicited from semi-structured interviews with caregivers of PWD [12]
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