Development of a scale to measure comfort in the daily lives of people with dementia and its reliability and validity

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K10629
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 58080:Gerontological nursing and community health nursing-related
• Research Institution: Hyogo University of Health Sciences
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Yukie 兵庫医療大学, 看護学部, 准教授 (10635832)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 認知症 / 生活 / 安心 / 尺度 / 開発

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study aimed to develop a scale to measure comfort in the daily lives of people with dementia. First, we conducted a conceptual analysis of comfort in the daily lives to collect comfort-related factors. Based on these factors, we drafted the comfort scale. Next, we developed the comfort scale consisting of 21 items by conducting interviews with professionals and a preliminary survey. In this study, we conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey to evaluate the daily living comfort of people with mild dementia using the scale. The responses were analyzed along with the existing QOL scale, through principal component analysis. Then, measurement dimensions were examined. The results revealed that the comfort scale shows similarities to the measurement contents of the QOL scale and its uniqueness such as “comfortable living”. The scale is an objective indicator and a useful tool for measuring the daily living comfort of people with mild dementia.

Free Research Field

在宅看護学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

認知症の人が，地域で安心して暮らし続けるための支援体制の構築は喫緊の課題である．生活とは，その人の心身の状況や文化，価値観などに影響を受ける極めて個別性の高いものである．軽度認知症の人を対象に開発された本尺度を活用することで，当事者にとっての安心，一人ひとり異なる生活上の安心を客観的に測定することが可能となり，認知症になっても地域で安心して生活できるための支援方略を見出すことに寄与できると考える．