Research on outcome evaluation of the support given to families of an aged person who requires care

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The purpose of this study was to develop the Family Lifestyle Stability Scale (FLSS) for evaluating the support given to the families caring for frail elderly household members in Japan. First, we revealed the structure of family lifestyle stability in this regard by the qualitative research. Second, based on the results, 58 items were extracted for use in measuring family lifestyle stability. Following this, we conducted a survey of 233 urban Japanese families caring, for frail elderly people at home. The factor structure of the FLSS was determined using factor analysis, and the reliability was analyzed using the Cronbach α coefficient. As a result, five factors, namely, mastery of care, family bonds, family participation in caregiving, leeway in family's life, and management of the home care service were constructed using 32 items and were extracted as rule factors of family lifestyle stability. After the factor extraction, the accumulation contribution was 48.9%. The Cronbach α coefficients for each factor ranged from 0.697 to 0.795, and the overall coefficient was 0.880. The content validity and internal consistency of the FLSS was confirmed. Nevertheless, it is essential to study various other aspects of validity, such as concurrent validity and predictive validity. Moreover, it is necessary to develop a revised version of the FLSS, which will include fewer items for elderly respondents.