Development and Validation of a Personal Care Modules for Older Adults with More Signifcant Disabilities

Abstract

Older adults residing in community, as -well as those -who are residing in institutional or care home may experience various cognitive, health and physical impairments that may affect their independence. Continuous supports are needed to manage most of their personal care activities 'which are usually managed by their family members, often withoutproper training or guidance. To date, there is no personal care module that can be used as a guideline by family members and paid caretakers. Therefore, this study aims to develop and validate a personal care module as a guideline in assisting older adults with more significant disabilities. This study was a three-phase study, involving (1) development of the personal care module, (2) focus group discussion -with healthcare experts and (3) face and content validity by the expert reviewers. A total of 10 older adults participated in semi structured interview in phase one and 13 occupational therapists were involved as experts in evaluating the module in phase two and three, having between 5 to 25 years of working experiences. The finding reported a high content validity in the developed module rangingfrom 0.88 to 1.00 on six domains of personal hygiene, bathing, dressing, feeding, bed mobility and stairs climbing. This study provides a preliminary supportfor the developed personal care module as a valid instrument to be used as a guideline in managing personal care activities of older adults with more significant disabilities. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]