Development of a long-term care needs assessment scale for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and its reliability and validity test

LYU Siyu; ZHU Beisha; XU Yulan

doi:10.12102/j.issn.1009-6493.2026.07.012

Abstract：Objective:To develop a long-term care needs assessment scale for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE)and test its reliability and validity.Methods:Based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory,the initial draft of the scale was determined through literature review,semi-structured interviews,expert consultation,and a preliminary survey.Using random sampling,a total of 512 systemic lupus erythematosus patients from a tertiary grade A hospital in Wuhan city were selected as the research subjects.The preliminary draft scale was used for the investigation to test its reliability and validity level.Results:The long-term care needs assessment scale for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus consisted of 5 dimensions(symptom management needs,psychological needs,healthcare service needs,information needs,and social support needs)and 27 items.The overall Cronbach's α coefficient of the scale was 0.935,with subscale coefficients ranging from 0.707 to 0.888.The Guttman split-half reliability was 0.783,with subscale split-half reliabilities ranging from 0.721 to 0.885.The scale-level content validity index was 0.888,the item-level content validity index were ranged from 0.720 to 0.960.Exploratory factor analysis extracted five common factors,with a cumulative variance contribution rate of 63.674%.Confirmatory factor analysis results showed that all model fitting indicators were acceptable.Conclusions:The long-term care needs assessment scale for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus developed in this study comprehensively covered the content of long-term care needs for systemic lupus erythematosus patients,with good reliability and validity,and could be used as an assessment tool for long-term care needs of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.