Development and psychometric testing of a measure of older adult patients' attitudes towards mobility during hospitalization (ATM-H)

This paper describes the development and psychometric testing of a questionnaire evaluating attitudes towards mobility during hospitalization of older adults, an understudied phenomenon that lacks a valid and reliable measure. An instrument development procedure, followed by an empirical study, was conducted between December 2013 and June 2014. Instrument development included item generation and analysis of content validity, which was established by six experts. The validation study used a prospective within-patients design with a sample of 100 patients, age 70+, hospitalized in general medical units in a large medical center. Internal consistency, reliability, and divergent and predictive validity of the measure were tested. Reliability analysis revealed an acceptable estimate for the total score (0.76). Predictive validity was good. The divergent validity coefficient was in the expected direction. Preliminary psychometric properties of the measure showed acceptable results. The measure should be explored further in different cultural settings.