Construction and Initial Validation of a Questionnaire to Assess Quality of Life in Older Institutionalized People

The aim of present study is the construction and initial validation of a specific instrument to assess Quality of Life of older people in a residential setting. Firstly, an initial questionnaire was designed, the Cuestionario de Evaluación de Calidad de Vida en Contexto Residencial (CECAVIR; in English, Questionnaire of Assessment of Quality of Life in Residential Setting) and subsequently refined, reducing the number of items from 88 to 56. It was then administered to a sample of 50 institutionalized people over 70 years of age. The results obtained in the new version of the instrument showed a considerable improvement of the alpha coefficient, both in the total questionnaire (from .816 to .865), and in each subscale. The results also showed that Functional Capacity is the dimension that best explains (44%) quality of life in older institutionalized people. Thus, the CECAVIR is presented as a specific instrument for the assessment of Quality of Life, which takes into account its multidimensionality, obtaining optimal results in the initial analyses of reliability and validity, in older institutionalized population.