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Development and validation of a comfort-measuring scale for elderly individuals with chronic conditions

2025-04-04Journal article Open access
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datacite.subject.fosCiências Médicas::Ciências da Saúde
datacite.subject.sdg03:Saúde de Qualidade
datacite.subject.sdg04:Educação de Qualidade
datacite.subject.sdg17:Parcerias para a Implementação dos Objetivos
dc.contributor.authorMarques, Rita
dc.contributor.authorVeludo, Filipa
dc.contributor.authorSousa, Patrícia Pontífice
dc.contributor.authorDixe, Maria dos Anjos
dc.date.accessioned2025-09-09T14:41:10Z
dc.date.available2025-09-09T14:41:10Z
dc.date.issued2025-04-04
dc.descriptionArticle number - 373
dc.descriptionSupplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-025-02999-w.
dc.description.abstractBackground Ageing is associated with chronic diseases and successive losses, which affect the comfort experienced by the elderly. Hence, in that population, comfort must be viewed as a need, and health care professionals (particularly nurses) should promote it through their interventions. This work aimed at developing a scale to assess comfort in elderly individuals with chronic conditions and determining the aforesaid scale’s psychometric characteristics (validity and reliability), while ascertaining the comfort levels experienced by the participants. Methods Our sample comprised 454 chronically ill elderly individuals, either hospitalized, or in residential care/at home. As regards descriptive statistics, we calculated various summary measures. Validity was appraised via exploratory factor analysis, considering the main components. We performed varimax rotation and factor extraction (in which factors with eigenvalues > 1 were extracted). Reliability was established by calculating internal consistency, using Cronbach’s alpha. For each scale item, we examined the corrected item-test correlation. Additionally, we calculated skewness and kurtosis, also carrying out a confirmatory factor analysis. Results The exploratory factor analysis produced a scale with 38 items and five factors, which fitted the data and explained a variance of 61.355%. The values of the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and the Bartlett’s test (sphericity) were 0.943 and 12055.962, respectively (both with p < 0.001). Our model was substantiated by the confirmatory factor analysis (χ² = 2884.242; df = 660; RMSEA = 0.086; CFI = 0.811; TLI = 0.798; SRMR = 0.066) and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.959. The summary measures showed that, overall, the participants experienced good comfort levels (Mean = 3.64; SD = ±0.676), revealing higher comfort levels in the “Spirituality and meaning of life” dimension (Mean = 3.79; SD = ±0.742) and lower comfort levels in the “Normality of life” dimension (Mean = 3.39; SD = ±0.922). Conclusion The scale demonstrated suitable psychometric properties, ensuring its validity and reliability in assessing comfort in elderly individuals with chronic conditions. Its five-factor structure enables a comprehensive evaluation, highlighting key comfort dimensions. These findings support targeted interventions, aiding healthcare professionals in improving care and informing evidence-based practices and health policies to enhance well-being. Implications for nursing and health policy By measuring comfort levels in chronically ill elderly individuals, it is possible to plan/improve the comforting care provided by the involved professionals (namely nurses).eng
dc.identifier.citationMarques, R., Veludo, F., Sousa, P.P. et al. Development and validation of a comfort-measuring scale for elderly individuals with chronic conditions. BMC Nurs 24, 373 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-025-02999-w
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/s12912-025-02999-w
dc.identifier.issn1472-6955
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/14023
dc.language.isoeng
dc.peerreviewedyes
dc.publisherBioMed Central
dc.relation.hasversionhttps://bmcnurs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12912-025-02999-w
dc.relation.ispartofBMC Nursing
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectComfort
dc.subjectElderly
dc.subjectChronic disease
dc.subjectScale
dc.subjectValidation study
dc.titleDevelopment and validation of a comfort-measuring scale for elderly individuals with chronic conditionseng
dc.typejournal article
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.citation.issue1
oaire.citation.titleBMC Nursing
oaire.citation.volume24
oaire.versionhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
person.familyNameDixe
person.givenNameMaria dos Anjos
person.identifier794059
person.identifier.ciencia-idDB15-BD76-2B75
person.identifier.orcid0000-0001-9035-8548
person.identifier.ridB-9257-2018
person.identifier.scopus-author-id55885797900
relation.isAuthorOfPublication591800d1-2c83-4227-af0a-b330a0acebac
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery591800d1-2c83-4227-af0a-b330a0acebac

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