The Person-Centered Care Assessment Tool (P-CAT) in Nursing Home: Psychometric Evaluation of the Italian Version

Background: The Person-centered Care Assessment Tool (P-CAT) was developed as a self-reporting assessment scale for the healthcare staff ratings of the person-centeredness of their nursing practice. Aim: This study investigates the psychometric proprieties of P-CAT tool in a sample of staff working in residential units for older people, in the North of Italy. Methods: Internal consistency and reliability were examined using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate construct validity, homogeneity analysis performed to evaluate internal homogeneity of the items and equidistance of item options, test–retest reliability examined by the Pearson correlation coefficient and the intraclass correlation (ICC) coefficient. The P-CAT score was standardized to a 100-point scale, the score differences among groups were compared with one-way ANOVA. Results: The exploratory factor analysis supported the construct validity of a two-factor solution. The mean standardized score of P-CAT was 67.3 (SD 12.8) and Cronbach’s alpha was .79 for subscale 1 and .75 for subscale 2. The ICC coefficient was .87. Conclusion: Reliability and homogeneity were satisfactory for the whole P-CAT tool (Cronbach’s alpha ≥ .70). Test–retest reliability showed temporal stability of the scale (r Pearson .86, ICC .86). The Italian version of the P-CAT was found to be valid, reliable, and applicable for further research. Two subscales are recommended for the Italian version.