Reliability and validity of Chinese version of housebound scale in Chinese elderly people

Abstract

Objective To study the reliability and validity of Chinese version of housebound scale in Chinese elderly people in community. Methods The housebound scale was amended and translated according to the Procedure of the European organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group. Include two scales , which is whether is housebound and the reason of housebound. The reliability and validity of Chinese version of housebound scale were tested in a sample of 860 Chinese elderly people in two communities among 127 communities in Tangshan from October 2012 to March 2013. Reliability was evaluated using the split-half reliability and internal consistency. Validity was assessed by content validity, discriminate validity and construct validity. Results The Cronbach's α coefficient of the first subscales was 0.743, the split-half reliability was 0.856, the convergent validity ratio was 0.960, and the scale had good discriminate validity(P<0.01). The Cronbach's αcoefficient of the second subscales was 0.853, the split-half reliability was 0.816, the convergent validity ratio was 0.910. Four factors body and mental factors, environmental factors, psychological and social factors, listening factors were extracted by a factor analysis, which explained 48.37% of the total variance. The loading value of each items in their respective common factor ranged from 0.42 to 0.82. Conclusion The housebound scale has better reliability and validity, which is available for the evaluation of housebound among elderly people. Key words: Housebound; Reliability; Validity; Scale; Factor analysis