Self-reported quality of life of older adults receiving home care: The feasibility and reliability of new items

Abstract

Proxy rated quality of life (QoL) might mislead the interpretation of QoL of older people. This cross-sectional survey evaluated the reliability and feasibility of using newly developed self-reported QoL items for older adults (≥75 years) receiving home care services. Of the distributed questionnaires, 60.34 % (875/1450) were returned with valid responses in at least one of the QoL items. The largest number of missing data was five cases per question, and the intraclass correlation ranged from 0.47 to 0.77. Furthermore, 66.0 % of those aged 85–94 years, 76.4 % of those with heart failure, and 50 % of those with a terminal medical condition responded to the QoL items. The newly developed items capture the essential aspects of older people's lives and were found to be reliable and feasible for use by older people, including those with terminal conditions, dementia, and a high degree of dependency.