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Psychometric characteristics of the Spanish version of the Barthel Index

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Abstract

Background

The Barthel Index is one of the most employed questionnaires for the evaluation of functionality, but there is no information on its psychometric properties.

Objective

The aim was to evaluate the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Spanish version of the Barthel Index.

Methods

The data employed in this paper were obtained from four Spanish cohorts of elderly people of 60 years or older. We collected data on age, gender, education level, comorbidities, and questionnaires regarding functionality, health-related quality of life, depression, and social support.

Results

The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were greater than 0.70. The confirmatory factor analysis provided satisfactory fit indexes and factor loadings. The correlation coefficients between the Barthel Index and the other questionnaires were lower than the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. Known-groups validity showed significant differences in the Barthel Index according to age, number of comorbidities, and gender. The standardized effect size and the standardized response mean were between 0.68 and 1.81.

Discussion

This version of the Barthel Index has good reliability, its structural validity has been confirmed, and the questionnaire can discriminate between groups and detect changes at follow-up points.

Conclusions

This questionnaire can be used in the evaluation of functionality and basic activities of daily living in elderly people with different conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support provided by the Biostatistics Research Group (Biostit), supported by the Department of Education, Linguistics Policy and Culture of the Basque Government (Ref: IT620-13). We gratefully thank the doctors of the Emergency Departments and all of the interviewers from the participating hospitals (Araba University Hospital (Santiago Hospital + Txagorritxu Hospital), Basurto University Hospital, and Cruces University Hospital), for their invaluable collaboration in patient recruitment. We are also grateful to the participants who voluntarily participated in this study and to the Research Committee of the Galdakao-Usansolo Hospital.

OFF (Older Falls Fracture)-IRYSS group: Jose María Quintana Lópeza,k,l, Susana García Gutiérreza,k,l, Carlota Las Hayas Rodríguezb,k,l, Jon Zabala Echenagusiac, Miren Orive Calzadaa,k,l, Nerea González Hernándeza,k,l, Urko Aguirre Larracoecheaa,k,l, Ane Anton Ladislaoa,k,l, Iratxe Lafuente Guerrero a,k,l, Amaia Bilbao Gonzálezd,k,l, Luis Angel Sanado Lampreavee, Ignacio Javier Gamilla Iglesiase, Elena Urrutia Sanzberroe, Rocío Fernández Albae, Ana Iribas Garnicae, Elena Urrutia Sanze, Juan Carlos Arenaza Merinof, Lander Larrea Azkorrag, Celestino Gómez Calatravah, Francisco Rivasi, Gemma Navarro Rubioj.

aUnidad de investigación. Hospital Galdakao-Usansolo. Galdakao (Bizkaia); bDepartamento de Personalidad, evaluación y tratamiento. Universidad de Deusto. Bilbao (Bizkaia); cServicio de traumatología. Hospital Galdakao-Usansolo. Galdakao (Bizkaia), Universidad del País Vasco (UPV). Leioa (Bizkaia); dUnidad de investigación. Hospital Universitario Basurto. Basurto (Bizkaia); eServicio de traumatología. Hospital Universitario Araba. Vitoria-Gasteiz (Araba); fServicio de traumatología. Hospital Universitario Basurto (Bizkaia); gServicio de traumatología. Hospital Universitario Cruces. Barakaldo (Bizkaia); hServicio de traumatología. Hospital Universitario Donostia. San Sebastián-Donostia (Gipuzkoa); iUnidad de epidemiología. Hospital Costa del Sol. Marbella (Málaga); jUnidad de epidemiología. Corporació Parc Tauli Clinic. Sabadell (Barcelona); kRed de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas-REDISSEC; lCentro de investigación en Cronicidad (Kronikgune). Bilbao (Bizkaia).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit, Hospital Galdakao-Usansolo, Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), Bº Labeaga, 46A, 48960, Galdakao, Bizkaia, Spain

    Nerea González, Miren Orive, Susana Garcia-Gutierrez & Jose Maria Quintana

  2. Research Unit, Hospital Universitario Basurto, Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain

    Amaia Bilbao

  3. National School of Public Health, Institute of Health Carlos III, Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), Madrid, Spain

    Maria Joao Forjaz & Alba Ayala

  4. Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research (BIOEF), Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), Barakaldo, Bizkaia, Spain

    Carlota Las Hayas

Authors
  1. Nerea González
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  2. Amaia Bilbao
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  3. Maria Joao Forjaz
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  4. Alba Ayala
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  5. Miren Orive
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  6. Susana Garcia-Gutierrez
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  7. Carlota Las Hayas
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  8. Jose Maria Quintana
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Consortia

OFF (Older Falls Fracture)-IRYSS group

Contributions

All of the authors contributed to the critical revision of the paper and approved the final version. Nerea González drafted the manuscript and incorporated the revisions of coauthors. Amaia Bilbao conducted the statistical analysis. Miren Orive and Carlota Las Hayas enrolled the participants. Susana García-Gutiérrez, Jose M. Quintana, Joao Forjaz, and Alba Ayala contributed to the design of the study and helped interpret the data.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nerea González.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grants from the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (PI08/90417); Department of Health of the Basque Country (2008111016); Asociación para la promoción de la Investigación clínica del Hospital de Galdakao-GOSIKER (BIOEF11/033); KRONIKGUNE- Centro de Investigación en Cronicidad (KRONIK 11/005); and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

This study was approved by the Ethics Committees and/or Review Boards of the participating institutions and has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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González, N., Bilbao, A., Forjaz, M.J. et al. Psychometric characteristics of the Spanish version of the Barthel Index. Aging Clin Exp Res 30, 489–497 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-017-0809-5

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