Predictive Cultural Model for Family Caregivers of Older People with Musculoskeletal Pain in East Coast Malaysia: A Pilot Validation Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31436/ijcs.v8i3.484Keywords:
Family caregiver, Older people, Strain, Musculoskeletal pain, Measurement toolsAbstract
Background: In Malaysia, family members play a major role in caring for the elderly as informal caregivers. Caregiving can be physically, emotionally, financially, socially, and culturally demanding. Despite these challenges, many caregivers continue to provide care because of a strong sense of family responsibility rooted in Malaysian culture and its multiethnic society. Therefore, culturally appropriate assessment tools are important to ensure valid and meaningful results across different populations. This pilot study aimed to validate the psychometric properties of the translated tools to support the development of a predictive cultural model for family caregivers.
Methods: A pilot cross-sectional study involved 30 caregivers from East Coast Malaysia. They completed the translated questionnaires which assess caregiver burden, attitudes, needs, and views on culturally competent healthcare. Internal reliability only was tested using SPSS version 29.
Results: A total of 30 caregivers took part (23.3% male, 76.7% female), and 90% were caring for their own parents. The length of caregiving ranged from 3 to 120 months, with an average of 31 months. All tools showed acceptable to excellent reliability, with Cronbach’s Alpha values between 0.610 and 0.916.
Conclusion: The tools are reliable and suitable for measuring caregiver burden, attitudes, needs, and views on culturally appropriate care. Future studies should involve a larger and more diverse group of caregivers to make the findings more general.
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