Nursing home adjustment scale: a psychometric study of an English version

Abstract

The findings indicate that the English version of the NHAS is a valid and reliable tool to measure the level of nursing home adjustment for older adults who speak English.

How do levels of nursing home adjustment differ by length of stay?

“…The main dependent variable was the level of adjustment to the nursing homes, which was measured by the NHAS. The original NHAS examining psychometric properties was developed in Korean, and translated into English . The NHAS consists of 23 items with a 5‐point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating that the nursing home resident is well adjusted.…”

“…The NHAS consists of 23 items with a 5‐point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating that the nursing home resident is well adjusted. There are five sub‐domains: ( i ) emotional distress ; ( ii ) relationship development ; ( iii ) acceptance of new residence ; ( iv ) difficulty fitting in ; and ( v ) depressed mood . The internal consistency of the scale was 0.83 in Korean and 0.77 in English .…”

“…There are five sub‐domains: ( i ) emotional distress ; ( ii ) relationship development ; ( iii ) acceptance of new residence ; ( iv ) difficulty fitting in ; and ( v ) depressed mood . The internal consistency of the scale was 0.83 in Korean and 0.77 in English . The NHAS has shown satisfactory convergent validity with life satisfaction ( r = 0.431), and divergent validity with the geriatric depression scale ( r = −0.69) …”

“…Moreover, nursing home adjustment has been only conceptually defined in several qualitative studies, and many quantitative studies on nursing home adjustment have used proxies such as life satisfaction, affects or activity level because of the lack of a clear operational definition of adjustment . However, the Nursing Home Adjustment Scale (NHAS) was recently published with acceptable reliability and validity in the USA . Using this tool, it is possible to directly measure residents' overall nursing home adjustment and specific features of adjustment using the sub‐domains of the NHAS.…”

“…[9][10][11][12] However, the Nursing Home Adjustment Scale (NHAS) was recently published with acceptable reliability and validity in the USA. 13 Using this tool, it is possible to directly measure residents' overall nursing home adjustment and specific features of adjustment using the subdomains of the NHAS. Therefore, the introduction of the NHAS is the first step in developing interventions to help nursing home residents adjust to their new environment.…”