• Henna Verho and Judith E Arnetz.
• Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. henna.verho@pubcare.uu.se
• Int J Qual Health Care. 2003 Jun 1; 15 (3): 197-206.

ObjectiveTo test and validate a questionnaire concerning patient relatives' perception of the quality of geriatric care.DesignThree anonymous questionnaire studies.SettingsA community-based geriatric care organization and a university hospital in Sweden.Study ParticipantsThree hundred and eighteen relatives of patients within the geriatric care organization and 38 relatives of patients at the university hospital.Main Outcome MeasuresA questionnaire composed of eight quality of care indices and an overall quality rating. Reliability and validity estimates were compared between the results from the three surveys.ResultsInternal reliability estimates for all indices were >0.65 and consistent over time. Inter-index correlations were >0.60 between certain indices, indicating some overlap. Second order factor analysis resulted in three distinct index groupings: personnel, relative's role, and care content. These three dimensions summarize relatives' perceptions of the quality of geriatric care.ConclusionsThere is a need for a confidential patient relatives' questionnaire in geriatric care. The results revealed good questionnaire reliability and validity. The questionnaire needs to be tested in larger, independent samples in order to validate the indices further.

21 keywords...

hide…