A Scale for Continuity of Care in Home Health Care: A Development and Validation Study

Purpose: This study aims to develop and test the psychometric properties of a scale for measuring the continuity of care specific to home health care patients in the context of Korean long-term care insurance services.Methods: In phase 1, the initial item pool was created based on the concept analysis results using a literature review and in-depth interviews. Phase 2 evaluated the psychometric properties of the scale in the survey conducted in 2021 using a sample of 202 receiving longterm care visiting nursing services. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to examine the construct validity. An internal consistency was examined using Cronbach’s α. Known group validity and criterion validity were assessed.Results: The EFA suggested five factors: therapeutic relationship, coordination of care, service availability, customized care plan, and consistency in service provision. The internal consistency reliability of the continuity of care scale was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α=.96). Known-group validity was established by comparing the continuity of care scores for high utilizers of home-visiting nursing services and low utilizers of home-visiting nursing services. Criterion validity was confirmed through the correlation between the developed scale and the performance of the visiting nurse service scale.Conclusion: The developed scale was found to be reliable and relatively valid for measuring the patient’s perceived continuity of care within the Korean long-term care visiting nursing system.