Abstract
BackgroundJoint contractures, which affect activity, participation, and quality of life, are common complications of neurological conditions among elderly residents in long-term care facilities. This study examined the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales in a population with joint contractures.MethodsA cross-sectional study design was used. The sample included elderly residents older than 64 years with joint contractures in an important joint who had lived at one of 12 long-term care facilities in Taiwan for more than 6 months (N = 243). The Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales for joint contractures was generated from the English version through five stages: translation, review, back-translation, review by a panel of specialists, and a pretest. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and criterion validity were evaluated, and the results were compared with those for the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule.ResultsThe Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales had excellent reliability, with a Cronbach α coefficient of 0.975 (mean score, 28.98; standard deviation, 17.34). An exploratory factor analysis showed three factors and one factor with an eigenvalue > 1 that explained 75.176 and 62.83 % of the total variance in the Activity subscale and Participation subscale, respectively. The subscale-to-total scale correlation analysis showed Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.881 for the Activity subscale and 0.843 for the Participation subscale. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed that the correlation coefficient (r) between the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule was 0.770, whereas that for the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale was − 0.553; these values were interpreted as large coefficients.ConclusionsThe underlying theoretical model of the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales functions well in Taiwan and has acceptable levels of reliability and validity. However, the Chinese version must be further tested for applicability and generalizability in future studies, preferably with a larger sample and in different clinical domains.
Highlights
Joint contractures, which affect activity, participation, and quality of life, are common complications of neurological conditions among elderly residents in long-term care facilities
Between 20 and 75 % of elderly residents in long-term care (LTC) facilities are affected by joint contractures [5], which result in functional restrictions and limitations of joint mobility and produce activity limitations and participation restrictions [5,6,7]
The Pearson correlation coefficient was large. These results show that, similar to the WHODAS 2.0–36 items, the PaArticular Scales developed using the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) of the World Health Organization (WHO) as the standard can be used as another simple tool for clinical measurement of activity and participation, and this tool addresses the gap in assessing patients with joint contractures [8]
Summary
Joint contractures, which affect activity, participation, and quality of life, are common complications of neurological conditions among elderly residents in long-term care facilities. Joint contracture is a fibrous disease characterized by joint capsule fibrosis and a limited range of motion secondary to periarticular molecular connective tissue shortening [1]. Between 20 and 75 % of elderly residents in long-term care (LTC) facilities are affected by joint contractures [5], which result in functional restrictions and limitations of joint mobility and produce activity limitations and participation restrictions [5,6,7]. Many studies have noted that activity limitations and participation restrictions, such as the inability to write or visit friends, are most relevant to patients with joint contractures [8, 9]
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