ABSTRACT
Published reports on the use of the Appraisal of Self-care Agency (ASA) Scale among Chinese people are scarce, the procedure of testing the ASA Scale is thus necessary before it is used clinically on Chinese population. The objective of this study was to test the validity and reliability of the ASA Scale on the Chinese population. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted in testing the Scale. A panel of 4 experts was invited to examine the content of the Scale and 128 elderly peoplefrom 3 elderly centers in Hong Kong were employed to examine its construct validity. Item analysis was conducted using Cronbach's Alpha coefficient to examine the reliability of the Scale. Content validity index of 0.88 was achieved resultingfrom the assessment of the 4 experts. Sevenfactors were extracted from the factor analysis representing approximately 70% of variance. The reliability coefficient for the entire Scale was 0.72. It was evident that the ASA Scale was a valid and reliable research instrumer that can be used in the Chinese communities.
