Validation of Wellbeing Scales Among Informal Caregivers of Latinos With Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

Abstract

We aied to examine the psychometric properties of several wellbeing scales among Latinos in the US, most of which have never been validated in a US-Latino population. We leveraged secondary baseline data from a one-arm mHealth trial on dementia caregiver support. We included 100 responses for caregiver-focused scales and 88 responses for care recipient-focused scales. Scales included the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire Severity and Distress scales, Six-item Zarit Burden Inventory, Ten-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale, Quality of Life in Alzheimer’s Disease, and Single-item Satisfaction With Life Scale. We calculated concurrent validity using Pearson and Spearman correlations and expected correlations amongst all variables in line with the Stress Process Framework. We calculated internal consistency reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. All concurrent validity correlations followed the expected directionality, with 19/21 inter-scale correlations in the total sample reaching statistical significance (p < .05), and 17/21 reaching at least a low correlation (.3). Cronbach’s alpha ranged from .832 to .879 in all scales in the total sample. The English and Spanish caregiver-administered scales tested in this manuscript have good psychometric properties among Latinos. These are now appropriately available for use among US Latinos in research and clinical contexts.