Validation of Distress Thermometer for Family Caregivers of Community-Dwelling Older People With Functional Impairment in China

IF 2.2 4区医学 Q4 GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY

International Journal of Older People Nursing Pub Date : 2025-12-14 DOI:10.1111/opn.70059

Xiaoling Bai, Yutian Niu, Shihong Guo, Jingjing Huang, Xue Jiang, Ting Lou, Anni Wang

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Abstract

Background

Psychological Distress Among Family Caregivers of Older People With Functional Impairment Are a Significant Concern. However, the Lack of Simple and Rapid Tools to Assess Psychological Distress in These Caregivers Delays Timely Intervention.

Aim

The aim was to examine the convergent validity and retest reliability of the Chinese version of the Distress Thermometer (DT) and document the cut-off score in family caregivers.

Methods

This was a diagnostic accuracy study and descriptive cross-sectional survey to examine the validity of the DT. The cut-off score was determined by using receiver operating characteristic analysis with the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) as the reference standard in a sample of 248 family caregivers.

Results

Good convergent validity with the DASS-21 (0.72–0.75) and good retest reliability (r = 0.93) were both illustrated for the DT. At a cut-off score of five, the sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were most satisfactory, and area under the curve values demonstrated significantly excellent discrimination. 37.1% of participants scoring higher than the cut-off score experienced a significant number of problems.

Conclusions

DT is a reliable tool for measuring the distress of family caregivers of older people with functional impairment. It is advisable for nurses to routinely employ DT to assess the distress of family caregivers.

Imlications for Practice

Healthcare professionals can use the DT as a routine screening tool to identify caregivers with psychological distress at an early stage, which facilitates the timely implementation of supportive interventions for caregivers.

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中国社区居住老年功能障碍家庭照顾者窘迫温度计的验证

背景：老年功能障碍家庭照顾者的心理困扰是一个值得关注的问题。然而，缺乏简单和快速的工具来评估这些照顾者的心理困扰，延误了及时干预。目的：检验中文版焦虑量表（DT）的收敛效度和重测信度，并记录其在家庭照顾者中的分值。方法：这是一项诊断准确性研究和描述性横断面调查，以检验DT的有效性。以抑郁焦虑压力量表（DASS-21）为参考标准，对248名家庭照顾者进行被试工作特征分析，确定分值。结果：DT具有较好的DASS-21的收敛效度（0.72-0.75）和较好的重测信度（r = 0.93）。在截断值为5分时，敏感性、特异性、约登指数、阳性预测值和阴性预测值最令人满意，曲线下面积值具有显著优秀的鉴别性。37.1%得分高于分界点的参与者经历了大量的问题。结论：DT是测量老年人功能障碍家庭照顾者痛苦的可靠工具。建议护士常规使用DT来评估家庭照顾者的痛苦。实践意义：医疗保健专业人员可以使用DT作为常规筛查工具，在早期阶段识别有心理困扰的护理人员，这有助于及时实施对护理人员的支持性干预措施。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Older People Nursing Nursing-Gerontology

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

9.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： International Journal of Older People Nursing welcomes scholarly papers on all aspects of older people nursing including research, practice, education, management, and policy. We publish manuscripts that further scholarly inquiry and improve practice through innovation and creativity in all aspects of gerontological nursing. We encourage submission of integrative and systematic reviews; original quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research; secondary analyses of existing data; historical works; theoretical and conceptual analyses; evidence based practice projects and other practice improvement reports; and policy analyses. All submissions must reflect consideration of IJOPN''s international readership and include explicit perspective on gerontological nursing. We particularly welcome submissions from regions of the world underrepresented in the gerontological nursing literature and from settings and situations not typically addressed in that literature. Editorial perspectives are published in each issue. Editorial perspectives are submitted by invitation only.