Vulnerability Scale for People with Motor Disabilities After an Acquired Neurological Lesion

Abstract

Introduction: After an acquired neurological lesion, some people are in situations of greater vulnerability to complications and comorbidities, which can exert impacts on their life and health, compromise their quality of life, and lead to hospitalizations and premature death. Identifying the vulnerability situation can guide nurses in the development of actions to prevent complications, comorbidities, and other conditions after the neurological lesion. Objective: To validate a scale to identify the vulnerability situation of people with motor disabilities after an acquired neurological lesion (Escala de Vulnerabilidade de Pessoas com Deficiência, EVU-PcD). Materials and method: The article presents a methodological development and psychometric study with a quantitative approach. The construct validity stages were as follows: application of the Vulnerability Scale for people with motor disabilities after an acquired neurological lesion (EVU-PcD) and reliability and confirmatory factor analysis. EVU-PcD, initially with 38 items, was applied to 102 individuals with acquired motor disabilities. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha from 0.7 to 0.9. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the structural equations model for latent variables a path diagram was used. Results: The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.86, which was considered excellent. The fit indices, chi-square ratio (1.63), root mean square of approximation errors (0.08) and parsimonious fit quality index (0.61) presented acceptable indicators of adequacy to the final model with three domains and 28 items. Conclusions: The final factor structure of the EVU-PcD scale with 28 items showed satisfactory reliability and validity results to identify the vulnerability of people with motor disabilities after an acquired neurological lesion.