ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop items used in assessment tools to evaluate the health functions in older adults. Methods: The research process consists of four stages: the first stage was a question extraction, the second stage was matching the extracted questions to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) models, the third stage was a Delphi investigation of cognitive and physical function evaluation items, and the fourth stage was a cognitive interview survey of groups of experts. In the first stage, panel surveys from China, Japan, and Korea were used to extract cognitive and physical health assessment items. The panel surveys used were the 2013 China Health and Retirement Survey, 2013 Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement, and the 2012 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging. In the second stage, three researchers matched the extracted items with sub-items of the ICF model, and in the third stage, we used the Delphi method to investigate the suitability of the second stage process. A total of 10 researchers and clinicians (one Chinese and one Japanese) participated in the Delphi survey, which was conducted through e-mail from May 1, 2021 to June 15, 2021. The Delphi survey produced the content validity and stability values of the evaluation items. Afterwards, three experts were selected to conduct the cognitive interviews. Results: From the 3 national panel surveys, 67 items related to physical and cognitive function were extracted. As a result of the Delphi survey, nine items had construct validity values of less than 0.8, and these items were removed from the item pool. In addition, the stability of the items was less than 0.5. As the final items, 59 items were selected and consisted of 13 cognitive function items, 9 basic activities of daily living items, 9 instrumental activities of daily living items, 23 other activity items, and 5 physical function items. Conclusion: In this study, we extracted survey items from three national panel surveys to create an item pool that can evaluate the health functions for older adults, and examined the content validity and stability. This study is significant in that the evaluation items were extracted to evaluate the health function of older adults from the perspective of an occupational therapist. The validated survey items can be used as a basis for the development of assessment tools that can evaluate the health functions of older people based on the ICF model.