Planning for long-term care: concept, definition, and measurement.
OBJECTIVE
This study explores the development and testing of an instrument to measure long-term-care planning behavior.


METHODS
Researchers operationalized proposed constructs and response styles as statements in a questionnaire. A telephone survey involved 150 randomly selected residents of Miami-Dade County, Florida who were between the ages of 55 and 70. Responses underwent exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and reliability testing.


RESULTS
The trimmed long-term-care planning instrument of 23 items had five subscales with high internal reliability (coefficients >.70), a comparative fit index of.987, and a root mean square error of approximation of.050. Responses involved making choices about housing, readiness to use help from family and friends, maintaining one's health, saving and investing money, and not accepting the need to ask for help.


CONCLUSIONS
Future research of long-term-care planning behaviors can use the instrument. Practitioners may use the instrument as a diagnostic inventory, alone or in combination with personalized educational interventions aimed at increasing awareness of and planning for future dependency and long-term-care assistance.
Florida International University, School of Nursing, ACII 203, North Miami, FL 33181, USA. friedemm@fiu.edu
Marie-Luise
ML
Friedemann
Frederick L
FL
Newman
Laura R
LR
Seff
Burton D
BD
Dunlop
D000368:Aged; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010934:Planning Techniques; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires