title: The construction and evaluation of the reliability and validity of a life attitude scale for elderly with chronic disease.
abstract: The elderly with chronic diseases face numerous impacts which influence their life attitudes. The purpose of this study was to construct, and evaluate the reliability and validity of a life attitude scale for elderly with chronic disease. Initially, the 27 items of the Life Attitude Scale were constructed by in depth interview of 48 elderly with chronic diseases. Then, the construct validity was established by factor analysis with 663 samples. Six factors: Congeniality of Family Life, Life Meaning, Dignity of Life, Struggle with Adversities, Hollow Existence, and Destiny to Life, which included 20 items, explained 59.7% of total variances. Content validity was found to be well established by 6 experts. Correlation of inter-rater reliability among 6 data collectors was 0.96. Cronbach's alpha of internal consistency was above 0.89 for 148 samples. Correlation of test-retest reliability was above 0.87 for 37 samples with 2-week interval. This study presents what the Taiwan elderly with chronic diseases are undergoing and their views on life and its value. There are highly culture-based and philosophy-based knowing about life attitude of elderly with chronic disease in Taiwan, and it is imperative to inspire nurses to promote the quality of spiritual care for elderly with chronic disease.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing & Graduate Institute of Nursing, National Taipei College of Nursing, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015399:Nursing Research; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013624:Taiwan