Validity and Reliability of the Caregiver Strain Index Scale in Women during the Puerperium in Spain

Design and Content Validation using Expert Opinions of an Instrument Assessing the Lifestyle of Adults: The 'PONTE A 100' Questionnaire

Lifestyle, a major determinant of health status, comprises a number of habits and behaviours that form a part of daily life. People with healthy lifestyles have a better quality of life, suffer less disease, and have a longer life expectancy. This work reports the design and content validation of a questionnaire-the 'PONTE A 100' questionnaire-assessing the lifestyle of adults. This collects information across five dimensions-'Eating Habits', 'Physical Activity', 'Smoking and use of Alcohol and other Drugs', 'Emotional Wellbeing', and 'Safety and Non-intentional Injuries'-via the answering of a total 33 items. Psychometric validation of the instrument's content was obtained via expert opinions. This was performed by two rounds of assessment and involved 34 experts representing different health science disciplines (mean experience, 27.4 ± 9.4 years). At the end of each round, adjustments were made according to their recommendations. Agreement between the experts was examined using the Aiken V test. A final V value of 0.95 (95% CI, 0.90-1.00) was obtained for the questionnaire as a whole, highlighting the validity of its content. The questionnaire would therefore appear to be an appropriate instrument for assessing the lifestyle of adults.

The Modified Caregiver Strain Index in Black and White Dementia Caregivers at Hospital Discharge

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to examine psychometric properties of the Modified Caregiver Strain Index (MCSI) in Black and White caregivers of persons living with dementia at hospital discharge.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study using baseline data of 423 family caregivers recruited from a cluster randomized clinical control trial. Factor structure, measurement invariance, and concurrent validity of the MCSI were analyzed. The moderating role of race on the relationship between MCSI score and anxiety, depression, and burden was also examined.

RESULTS

The two-factor model fits the data best and was invariant across race. Regarding concurrent validity, higher MCSI scores were significantly associated with higher scores on the (HADS-A; anxiety), (HADS-D; depression), and (ZBI; burden). Race moderated the relationship between MCSI score and anxiety, depression, and burden.

CONCLUSIONS

The MCSI is a valid tool to assess caregiver strain in Black and White caregivers of persons living with dementia during hospital discharge. Results suggest that the effect of MCSI score on anxiety, depression, and burden varies by race.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

MCSI can be used by clinicians and service providers to help support the needs of Black and White caregivers of people living with dementia during post-hospital transition.

Which mothers' breastfeeding behaviours within six weeks postpartum do health workers need to notice? Developing an indicator system based on the Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process

OBJECTIVE

The six weeks postpartum is the high-incidence period of stopping breastfeeding. The clarity of the internal mechanism of behaviour was an effective way to promote breastfeeding. The aim was to reach a consensus on indicators what should be used and prioritised in evaluating mothers' breastfeeding behaviour within six weeks postpartum in order to provide a theoretical reference for health workers to take targeted strategies toward promoting breastfeeding practices.

DESIGN

Two rounds of Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process was conducted in this study. The two-rounds Delphi was performed to select essential indicators and collect revised suggestion. The analytic hierarchy process was adopted for pairwise comparison to rank the significance of primary and secondary indicators.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

The panel included twenty experts with rich breastfeeding information and different general characteristics from China.

FINDINGS

Consensus was achieved to include three primary indicators, seven secondary indicators, and forty-five tertiary indicators in the final indicators system of the mothers' breastfeeding behaviour within six weeks postpartum. The weight sequence of primary indicators was self-regulation behaviour (0.401), at-the-breast feeding behaviour (0.383), and resource utilisation behaviour (0.216). The rank of the secondary indicators was breastfeeding operation skills (0.267), self-decision behaviour (0.144), self-control behaviour (0.130), self-coping behaviour (0.127), breastfeeding self-perception (0.116), resource acquisition behaviour (0.115), and resource coordination behaviour (0.101).

KEY CONCLUSION

The study builds a new and reliable indicators system that intuitively reflects the constituent elements of the mothers' breastfeeding behaviour within six weeks postpartum and provides priorities in primary indicators and secondary indicators.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICES

The study helps form a clear and scientific cognition on mothers' breastfeeding behaviour within six weeks postpartum and provides a new perspective and intuitive theoretical reference for health workers to take targeted measures to promote breastfeeding practices and achieve substantial public health gains.

The mothers' breastfeeding behaviour within six weeks postpartum: new scale development and psychometric validation study

BACKGROUND

The evaluation of mothers' breastfeeding behaviour within 6 weeks postpartum could help health workers comprehensively identify maternal breastfeeding shortcomings, clarify nursing problems, and provide targeted interventions. However, no prior study was found, therefore this study aimed to develop and validate the reliability and validity of the mothers' breastfeeding behaviour scale within 6 weeks postpartum.

METHODS

A main two-step approach was used: (1) a qualitative pilot study using the purposive sampling method was adopted to test the fitness, simplicity, and clarity of items with 30 mothers; (2) a cross-sectional survey using the convenient sampling method was conducted for item analysis and psychometric validation with 600 mothers.

RESULTS

The final version of the scale consisted of 36 items with seven dimensions, explaining 68.852% of the total variance. The Cronbach's α, split-half, and retest coefficients were 0.958, 0.843, and 0.753, respectively. The validity of the scale: (1) Content validity: content validity index (CVI) range of items was between 0.882 and 1.000. The scale-level-CVI was 0.990. (2) Structure validity: The fitting indices were as follows: χ²/ⅆf =2.239, RMR = 0.049, RMSEA = 0.069, TLI = 0.893, CFI = 0.903, IFI = 0.904, PGFI = 0.674, and PNFI = 0.763. (3) Convergent validity: The composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE) of the seven dimensions were between 0.876 and 0.920 and between 0.594 and 0.696. (4) Distinguish validity: The correlation coefficients were less than the square root of the AVE, except for self-decision behaviour, self-coping behaviour, and self-control behaviour. However, the fit index of the original three-factor model was better than that of the other new models, with significant differences (P < 0.001). (5) Calibration validity: The area under the curve was 0.860 or 0.898 when the scale was used to predict exclusive or any breastfeeding at 42 days. The correlation coefficients of the maternal breasting feeding evaluation scale, breastfeeding self-efficacy short-form scale, and the scale were 0.569 and 0.674, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The newly developed mothers' breastfeeding behaviour scale within 6 weeks postpartum consists of 36 items belonging to seven dimensions with good reliability and validity and is a reliable and valid instrument to be used in future maternal breastfeeding behaviour assessments and interventions.