Dementia is one of the major health problems affecting older people according to the World Health Organization. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most frequent form of dementia, followed by vascular dementia.
Care for people with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias should be based on up-to-date clinical practice guidelines. The education and training of nurses and other healthcare staff in dementia is a key factor in providing quality care. Knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease can be measured through questionnaires such as the UJA Alzheimer’s Care Scale, recently developed and validated by Dr. Laura Parra and other members of our research team. (project).
The study was a cross-sectional survey undertaken in three stages:
- development of the questionnaire and item wording
- content validation by an expert panel
- questionnaire testing with two samples to establish psychometric properties (one sample comprised Registered Nurses, Assistant Nurses and eldercare workers from nursing homes, and other sample comprised nursing students)
The data were analysed through item analysis and a Rasch model. Convergent and construct validity and internal consistency were also examined, and the initial validation study obtained good psychometric properties concerning validity and reliability.
Results indicate that the UJA Alzheimer’s Care scale, with 23 items, is a useful tool for measuring knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care among nursing professionals or nursing students.
The full text is available at: Parra-Anguita L, Sánchez-García I, del Pino-Casado R, Pancorbo-Hidalgo PL. Measuring knowledge of Alzheimer’s: development and psychometric testing of the UJA Alzheimer’s Care Scale. BMC Geriatrics. 2019; 19:63.
