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Test‐Retest Reliability of a Questionnaire That Identifies Elders at Risk for Hospital Admission
Author(s) -
Boult Lisa,
Boult Chad,
Pirie Phyllis,
Pacala James T.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1994.tb06528.x
Subject(s) - medicine , test (biology) , proxy (statistics) , medicaid , reliability (semiconductor) , gerontology , physical therapy , family medicine , health care , paleontology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning , computer science , economics , biology , economic growth
OBJECTIVE : To determine the test‐retest reliability of a questionnaire designed to measure elderly persons' probability of repeated admission (P ra ) to a hospital within 4 years. DESIGN : Participants received the test questionnaire by mail; respondents to the test questionnaire received the retest questionnaire 3 weeks later. PARTICIPANTS : Elderly (65+) community‐dwelling enrollees in the Medical Assistance (Medicaid) program of Ramsey County, MN ( n = 192). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE : The correlation ( r ) between the P ra values computed from the test‐retest correlations ( k ) of the questionnaire's individual items were also measured. RESULTS : The response rate was 63% (121/192) for the test questionnaire and 69% (84/121) for the retest questionnaire. The test and retest values of P ra computed from responses to the questionnaires were highly correlated ( r = 0.78, P < 0.0001). For the individual questionnaire items, the range of k values was 0.50–1.00 ( P < 0.0001 for all items). Slightly higher values of r and k were obtained when the respondents were women and when the same person (either proxy or self) completed both questionnaires. Age was not consistently related to reliability. CONCLUSION : the test‐retest reliability of individual items and of the computed P ra was high, suggesting that responses by elderly persons to mailed questionnaires pertaining to health status are stable over brief periods of time. The resulting P ra values may be useful in identifying elders at high risk for hospital admission.