Abstract
After reviewing the literature on environmental safety and existing home safety evaluation tools, the researchers developed the Cougar Home Safety Assessment Version 1.0 (Cougar 1.0). This assessment is a 56-item tool for identifying environmental safety hazards in the homes of older persons. The first purpose of this study was to develop and field test the Cougar 1.0 to determine its inter-rater reliability and validity. The second purpose was to identify specific environmental safety hazards in the residences of older persons during the field test. Three graduate occupational therapy students administered the Cougar 1.0 in the homes of 14 older persons within one county of northeastern Pennsylvania. The instrument was found to have a moderate level of inter-rater reliability, as Cohen’s Kappa for the ratings of the 3 raters was .506. Percent agreement between the three raters was 90 percent. The field test found that the most frequently unsafe aspects of the homes were: a lack of grab bars near toilets; no emergency numbers posted near phones; the presence of non-grip throw rugs; lack of fire extinguishers; and lack of step stools. Participating residents and occupational therapy home safety specialists provided positive feedback regarding the content validity of the Cougar 1.0. This research suggests that the use of this instrument by occupational therapists may prevent client injuries in the home.
Highlights
After reviewing the literature on environmental safety and existing home safety evaluation tools, the researchers developed the Cougar Home Safety Assessment Version 1.0 (Cougar 1.0)
This instrument development report describes the findings of a field test on the Cougar Home Safety Assessment for Older Persons, Version 1.0 (Cougar 1.0)
It was hoped that the development of a reliable environmental safety assessment and information on the types of existing safety hazards would help occupational therapy practitioners meet the environmental safety needs of older persons living independently in the community
Summary
After reviewing the literature on environmental safety and existing home safety evaluation tools, the researchers developed the Cougar Home Safety Assessment Version 1.0 (Cougar 1.0). The first purpose of this study was to develop and field test the Cougar 1.0 to determine its inter-rater reliability and validity. This research suggests that the use of this instrument by occupational therapists may prevent client injuries in the home This instrument development report describes the findings of a field test on the Cougar Home Safety Assessment for Older Persons, Version 1.0 (Cougar 1.0). Depoy and Gitlin (2005) suggest the following steps in instrument development: (a) conduct literature review, (b) establish theory base, (c) determine concept to be measured, (d) design framework, (e) identify content and criteria, (f) test usefulness. With these steps in mind, we began this investigation with a literature review. This 5% did not include older persons in nursing homes
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