Open AccessDevelopment and psychometric evaluation of a measure to evaluate the quality of integrated care: the P atient A ssessment of I ntegrated E lderly C are
Author(s) -
Uittenbroek Ronald J.,
Reijneveld Sijmen A.,
Stewart Roy E.,
Spoorenberg Sophie L.W.,
Kremer Hubertus P.H.,
Wynia Klaske
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
health expectations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.314
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1369-7625
pISSN - 1369-6513
DOI - 10.1111/hex.12391
Subject(s) - quality (philosophy) , psychometrics , medicine , rank correlation , gerontology , criterion validity , spearman's rank correlation coefficient , psychology , construct validity , clinical psychology , statistics , mathematics , philosophy , epistemology
Background Novel population‐based integrated care services are being developed to adequately serve the growing number of elderly people. Suitable, reliable and valid measurement instruments are needed to evaluate the quality of care delivered. Objective To develop a measure to evaluate the quality of integrated care from the perspective of elderly people, the P atient A ssessment of I ntegrated E lderly C are ( PAIEC ), and then to assess its psychometric properties. Methods/Design After the P atient A ssessment of C hronic I llness C are was adapted to the PAIEC , a cross‐sectional postal‐survey study was performed among 223 elderly people who received integrated elderly care and support. We assessed the factor structure, internal consistency, known groups and divergent validity using robust nonparametric tests. Results Mean age of participants was 83 years (standard deviation 4.7), and 69% was female. The original five‐factor model was rejected; a good fit was found for a three‐factor model, when excluding the item on patients' satisfaction with care. The PAIEC and its subscales showed good internal consistency (ordinal alphas > 0.90). Known‐groups validity was supported regarding number of medications, prevalence of chronic conditions and home care received. No differences were found between groups based on sociodemographic aspects. Divergent validity was supported by low correlations ( S pearman's rank correlation coefficients < 0.30) between PAIEC scales and measures of quality of life, complexity of care needs and frailty. Conclusion The PAIEC seems to have considerable potential as a reliable and valid measurement instrument that evaluates quality of integrated care and support from the perspective of elderly people.