Validation of a questionnaire for the evaluation of informal social support for the elderly: section 1

Abstract

Objectives: to construct and carry out content (CV) and response process (RPV) validation for a questionnaire to assess informal social support for the elderly. Method: a descriptive, observational, quantitative study was performed between January and December 2016 in the city of Natal (Rio Grande do Norte) and other locations in Brazil. The inclusion criteria were: proven experience in the area of social support (for experts) or 60 years of age or older and with preserved cognitive status (for the elderly). The CV stage evaluated the relevance of the items according to the general Content Validity Index (CVI) and per item as well as the assembly of the panel based on the observations of the experts. In the RPV stage, the understanding of the items by the target audience was evaluated. Results: the CV stage included a total of 40 interviewees. The overall CVI was 0.88 and only one item had a CVI considered poor. In the RPV stage 41 people were interviewed. Conclusion: the questionnaire exhibited good relevance for the proposed items and the observations of the interviewees allowed an approximation of the language used in the instrument to the language of the elderly.

Validade e acurácia do Guedes Tool para avaliar o apoio social informal para idosos

“…The latent dimensions confirmed in the present study are the subject of discussions in scientific literature, and should therefore be justified in the present discussion, with a theoretical model provided for each one. Our decision to choose such domains is also based on previous studies regarding this instrument 12,13 .…”

“…Accuracy analysis is another decisive tool in the questionnaire validation process, as it defines parameters for diagnosis/prognosis and proposes more reliable reference measures to identify true cases or exclude false cases (sensitivity and specificity, for example), thus making the diagnostic assessment process more assertive 11 . Other steps in the validity process for this instrument have been previously developed, and have demonstrated good indicators of content validity and in the response process of the target population 12 , as well as internal validity of the factors and items chosen from the exploratory factor analysis 13 .…”