Construction of the care needs assessment index for institutional elderly / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To construct the care needs assessment index for institutional elderly. Methods A total of 30 experts were consulted by the Delphi method. The indexes were selected and identified according to the inquiry results. Results The response rates of three expert consultation rounds were 93.33％(28/30), 85.71％(24/28), and 79.17％(19/24) respectively. The authority coefficients of the three rounds were all above 0.80. The assessment index includes 4 first level indicators, 13 secondary level indicators, and 48 third level indicators. Weighting results indicated that in terms of the elderly in institutional care, the most important domain of care needs was physical function, followed by ability of activity. At the same time, psychological function and social function in the elderly cannot be ignored. Conclusions The study obtained key elements that should be included in a comprehensive care needs assessment index of the institutional elderly, which laid a solid foundation for further investigation on the formation of specific assessment tools for care needs of the elderly in institutional care.