Evaluation of reliability and validity of a community needs assessment instrument for nursing homes in the Taiwan area

Several studies have been done that identify an insufficient number of nursing homes as a major problem in the Taiwan area. However, no previous studies have investigated exactly what kind of service is needed and would actually be used, nor have any research instruments been designed to measure perception of need or use. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation research was to establish reliability and validation of a community needs assessment instrument, called Perception Evaluation Tool (PET). A psychometric evaluation study with cross-sectional longitudinal sampling techniques using a mailed questionnaire was conducted. A randomly selected sample of 168 community individuals and 151 key community informants who resided in the 10 survey towns was included in the study. The results generated from these participants have demonstrated the stability reliability, the internal consistency reliability, the convergent validity, and the discriminant validity of the PET. In conclusion, the final 67-item self-report PET is a reliable and valid instrument which can be used to assess the perceptions of need for nursing homes from general community individuals and key community informants in either suburban or rural communities in the Taiwan area.