Factor Structure of the Cultural Competence Items in the National Home and Hospice Care Survey

There is a need for validated measures of cultural competency practices in home health and hospice care (HHHC).

To establish the factor structure of the cultural competency items included in the agency-component of the 2007 public-use National Home and Hospice Care Survey file.

We used weighted survey data from 1036 HHHC agencies.

We used exploratory factor analyses to identify a preliminary factor structure, and then performed confirmatory factor analysis to provide further support for identified factor structure.

We examined 9 cultural competency items.

Exploratory factor analyses suggested an interpretable 2-factor solution: (1) the provision of mandatory cultural competency training; and (2) the provision of cultural competency communication practices. Each factor consisted of 3 items. The remaining 3 items did not load well on these factors. A similar, but more restrictive, confirmatory factor analysis model without cross-loadings supported the 2-factor model: (Equation is included in full-text article.)=9.50, P=0.30, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0.01, comparative fit index (CFI)=0.99, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI)=0.99.

Two constructs with 3 items each appeared to be internally valid measures of cultural competency in this nationally representative survey of HHHC agencies: cultural competency training and cultural competency communication practices. These measures could be used by HHHC managers in quality improvement efforts and by policy makers in monitoring cultural competency practices.