Designing and determining psychometric properties of the Elder Neglect Checklist

The purpose of this study was to design and determine the psychometric properties of a checklist for assessing domestic elder neglect.

This study was conducted in four phases. In the first phase، the meaning of domestic elder neglect explored using the qualitative method of phenomenology. In the second phase، a checklist was created، based on the results obtained in the first phase، in conjunction with the inductions from the expert panel. In the third and fourth phases، the psychometric properties including face validity، content validity، construct validity، convergent validity، internal consistency، and Inter- rater reliability were measured. 110 elderly people participated in the this study.

The initial 26 item checklist designed using the results of first and second phases of study، reduced to 11 items and 2 factors including the health and care needs neglect، and neglect in providing healthy environment in the process of determining the face and content validity. Acceptable convergent validity was identified in the elder neglect checklist and care neglect scale of the domestic elder abuse questionnaire (r= 0. 862). The results of known groups'' comparisons showed that this checklist could successfully discriminate between subgroups of elderly people in the index of re-hospitalization. The internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson Formula 20) was 0. 824. Inter- rater reliability of the checklist was 0. 850.

the elder neglect checklist with 11 items appears to be a promising tool، providing reliable and valid data helping to detect neglect among elders in different settings such as clinical settings، homes and research environments by health care providers and researchers.