Construct validity of the Nursing Care Dependency Scale

This paper describes the results of a stud determining construct validity aspects of the Nursing Care Dependency (NCD) Scale. This 15-item instrument has been developed 1 recently! for the assessment of the care dependency of dementia or learning-disabled inpatients. Data was collected fur 450 dementia and 203 learning-disabled patients using the NCD instrument. Factor analysis of the NCD instrument resulted in one Factor. With Mokken scale anal, sis an H-coefficient of 0.75 was found, which implied a strong hierarchical scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficients (0.97) were high enough to use the NCD instrument in clinical practice, at both group and individual levels.