IntroductionBasic emergency management in urban and rural areas is a critical challenge. This paper presents the protocol for developing, validating and piloting an instrument to assess the preparedness of non-hospital health centres which deliver initial emergency care.Methods and analysisThis study will be designed based on a sequential exploratory mixed method in two phases, in each of which there are three steps. In the first step of phase I, an extensive systematic review will be conducted. In the second step, through focus group discussions (FGDs), the experts’ views on the definition of domains and items of the instrument will be compiled. In addition, semistructured interviews with the target group will be performed. Then, qualitative framework analysis will be performed. In the last step of phase I, the results of both steps will be triangulated by a panel of experts to define the domains and items to be included in the instrument. Phase II will include content validity, feasibility and reliability of the instrument. Content validity of the instrument will be assessed using modified Kappa coefficient based on clarity and relevance criteria. Feasibility of the instrument will be assessed through its implementation in 10 non-hospital health centres in Tabriz, which will be selected randomly. Reliability will be assessed in a pilot on 30 non-hospital health centres through using stratified random sampling method. Reliability of the instrument will be assessed through measuring internal consistency, test-retest reliability and inter-rater agreement. The main statistical methods for assessing reliability will include Cronbach’s alpha, intraclass correlation coefficient and Kendall’s tau-b. All the statistical analyses will be performed using Stata V.14.Ethics and disseminationThis study is approved by Tabriz University of Medical Sciences Research Ethics Committee (IR.TBZMED.REC.1397.145). The results of the study will be presented at national scientific conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.
Background
Measuring self-care ability in elderly people needs specific instruments. The Self-care Ability Scale for Elderly (SASE) is one of the common instruments used for assessing self-care ability. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the SASE among Iranian elderly population.
Methods
This cross-cultural adaptation study was carried out at Shahid Chamran and Shadpour Health Complex in Tabriz, Iran. The forward-backward procedure was applied to translate the SASE from English into Persian. Then, it was completed to 220 elderly people. A systematic random sampling method was used for sampling. Content validity was calculated through modified Kappa coefficient (modified CVI) based on clarity and relevance criteria. Reliability was measured by internal consistency and test-retest analysis. The construct validity also was assessed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). All the statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 21 statistical software package.
Results
The mean of self-care ability was 61.14 ± 21.08. The CVI and modified kappa were 0.91 and 0.92 for relevance and clarity, respectively. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.73 and Intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.97. The results of EFA revealed a three-factor solution (‘ability to take care of personal responsibility’, ‘ability to take care for the goals’, and ‘ability to take care of the health’) that jointly explained for 64.61% of the total variance.
Conclusion
Results of the study showed that the Iranian version of the SASE has good psychometric properties and can be used in assessing the self-care ability of elderly people.
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