Development and Content Validity of a Disability Self-Management Questionnaire for Hispanic Older Adults

Abstract

Objective: There is no Spanish-language instrument for assessing the self-management strategies used by older adults with physical function disabilities to manage the difficulties that can occur in daily living activities. This study aimed to design and test the content validity of a Spanish version of the newly developed Self-Management of Function in Daily Living Activities Questionnaire (SF-DLAQ). Methods: A methodological study, guided by the Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP) model, was conducted to develop the SF-DLAQ. Stage 1 focused on designing the questionnaire, doing so using qualitative data obtained from 24 older adults and obtained from 10 existing scales that measure the self-management of chronic conditions. Stage 2 focused on expert judgement, which consisted of validating the questionnaire with 8 experts in aging using an item-level content validity index (I-CVI), a scale-level CVI (S-CVI), and the kappa statistic. Results: All the scores that were attained in stage 2 were favorable, with those of the I-CVI for clarity ranging from 0.09 to 1.0 and those of the I-CVI for relevancy, the S-CVI, and the kappa all being 1.0. Conclusion: The scale and item validity for the SF-DLAQ, Spanish version, has been demonstrated but should be confirmed with further testing.