ACHA publication: Assessing the feasibility of measuring residents’ quality of life in English care homes and the construct validity and internal consistency of measures completed by staff proxy: a cross-sectional study

The majority of people who move into long-term care homes live there for the rest of their lives. Care organisations usually focus on delivering person-centred care that meets the individual needs of those who use their services. Yet measuring how this care impacts upon quality of life can be difficult and most quality of life measures are not validated in this setting.

This paper was part of the Developing research resources And minimum data set for Care Homes’ Adoption (DACHA) study led by the University of Hertfordshire and Kent with substantial input from ACHA team members. It considers four quality of life measures and shows that three of them can be used in care homes, and are feasible. One measure – the QUALIDEM – did not work well in this study and cannot be recommended based upon work undertaken here. The other three – ASCOT-Proxy-Resident, ICECAP-O and EQ-5D-5L – each had advantages and disadvantages that are discussed in-depth in the article.

This work lays the foundations for using these measures in routine practice going forward to help us ensure that we deliver the best possible care for older people that live in care homes.

You can read the paper here.

You can learn more about the wider DACHA study here.

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