Disease burden morbidity assessment by self-report: Psychometric properties in older adults in Spain

To carry out an analysis of the psychometric properties of the Disease Burden Morbidity Assessment (DBMA) according to the assumptions of the Classical Test Theory.

A sample of 707 community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older, living in Spain, completed the DBMA. Psychometric properties of the scale (feasibility, acceptability, scaling assumptions, reliability and construct validity) were analyzed.

The mean DBMA score was 6.8. Feasibility and acceptability were satisfactory, except for large floor effects (>50%), as well as a skewed distribution (1.8). Item-total corrected correlation ranged 0.10-0.49, item homogeneity index was 0.09 and Cronbach's alpha was 0.72. Disease burden correlated strongly with physical functioning (r = -0.56) and perceived health (r = -0.56), and moderately with depression (r = 0.41) and the Personal Wellbeing Index (r = -0.41). Exploratory factor analysis extracted five factors, explaining 44% of the variance.

The DBMA is an acceptable and valid instrument for measuring disease burden in older adults. Future studies should include Rasch analysis to further assess dimensionality and explore other measurement properties. Geriatr Gerontol 2017; 17: 1102-1108.