Validation and psychometric evaluation of the Dutch person-centred care of older people with cognitive impairment in acute care (POPAC) scale

BACKGROUND: Person-centred care is the preferred model for caring for people with dementia. Knowledge of the level of person-centred care is essential for improving the quality of care for patients with dementia. The person-centred care of older people with cognitive impairment in acute care (POPAC) scale is a tool to determine the level of person-centred care. This study aimed to translate and validate the Dutch POPAC scale and evaluate its psychometric properties to enable international comparison of data and outcomes. METHODS: After double-blinded forward and backward translations, a total of 159 nurses recruited from six hospitals (n=114) and via social media (n=45) completed the POPAC scale. By performing confirmatory factor analysis, construct validity was tested. Cronbach’s alpha scale was utilized to establish internal consistency. RESULTS: The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the comparative fit index (0.89) was slightly lower than 0.9. The root mean square error of approximation (0.075, p=0.012, CI 0.057–0.092) and the standardized root mean square residual (0.063) were acceptable, with values less than 0.08. The findings revealed a three-dimensional structure. The factor loadings (0.69–0.77) indicated the items to be strongly associated with their respective factors. The results also indicated that deleting Item 5 improved the Cronbach’s alpha of the instrument as well as of the subscale ‘using cognitive assessments and care interventions’. Instead of deleting this item, we suggest rephrasing it into a positively worded item. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the Dutch POPAC scale is sufficiently valid and reliable and can be utilized for assessing person-centred care in acute care hospitals. The study enables nurses to interpret and compare person-centred care levels in wards and hospital levels nationally and internationally. The results form an important basis for improving the quality of care and nurse-sensitive outcomes, such as preventing complications and hospital stay length. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-020-06048-x.