TURKISH JOURNAL OF GERIATRICS-TURK GERIATRI DERGISI, vol.16, no.2, pp.172-176, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
Introduction: Elderly people’s right to privacy has been an important area of study especially in geriatric nursing institutions. The present study aimed to develop a new scale, “Attitudes Towards the Privacy of the Elderly” (ATPE) to assess the attitudes of nursing home carers towards the privacy of the elderly. Materials and Method: Nursing home carers (n=156) from the southern regions of Turkey participated in the study. They were asked to fill in each item by rating on a five point Likert-type scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. A number of reliability and validity analyses such as internal consistency, test-retest reliability and factor analysis were conducted to examine ATPE’s psychometric properties. Results: Factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure with 16 items explaining 37% of the variance. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were found to be .77 and .53, respectively. Item total correlation was found to range from .35 to .77. Conclusion: The 16 item respondent-based scale is a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate attitudes towards the privacy of the elderly. It is suggested that further studies may illuminate the practical value of the scale in nursing home settings.