The development of a Korean health status measure for the elderly

Shin, Ho Cheol; Kim, Cheol Hwan; Cho, Be Long; Won, Jang Won; Song, Sang Wook; Park, Young Kyu; Yun, Young Ho; Chung, Seung Pil

Abstract

BACKGROUND: According to different characteristics of health dimensions and its consisting item contents, valid and useful health status assessment tool for the elderly is rare. Because of the continuous increase in elderly population with functional disability in Korea, the need for a valid Korean health status assessment tool for the elderly is growing. Therefore, we have attempted to develop a Korean Health Status Measure for the Elderly in this study.
METHODS
We gathered important health related items from 671 individuals aged 60 years and over to form item pool with interview. Then we classified all items into representative items according to its meaning with the experts in geriatrics. With these representative items we constructed preliminary questionnaire. After wards we performed a pilot study for evaluating understandability, accessibility, item analysis, reliability and for detecting other modifiable limitations. After completing the pilot study we finally developed the Korean Health Status Measure for the Elderly(KoHSME V1.0).
RESULTS
The number of collected health related items were 2,500 in the item pool. After classification of items in the pool, 40 representative items were selected for constructing preliminary version of the KoHSME. And we added 3 items of 'general health perception' dimension to 40 common representative items to a construct preliminary version of the KoHSME. It took an average of 18.8 minutes to complete the preliminary questionnaire by the elderly in the pilot study. Most responders (90.9%) thought the questionnaire was not difficult to understand. After the pilot study we added 2 items (wearing clothes, pain frequency) and omitted 1 item (eating). Finally, the KoHSME V1.0 questionnaire consisted of 44 items and 6 domains such as physical function, emotional function, social function, pain, sexual function, and general health perception. All items were Likert scale except pain intensity item, which was visual analogue scale.
CONCLUSION
The KoHSME V1.0 to assess health status and quality of life for the Korean elderly was developed. We think the KoHSME V1.0 is reliable instrument for assessing health related to quality of life in the elderly. After documenting the validity, the KoHSME V1.0 can be a useful tool for comprehensive assessment of health status in the elderly and for the medical outcome study.