Social care-related outcomes in Finland. Construct validity, internal consistency, and structural validity of the Finnish ASCOT with older home care users

The Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit four response-level interview schedule (ASCOT INT4) for service users was translated into Finnish. The aim of this paper is to investigate the construct validity, internal consistency, and structural validity of the Finnish ASCOT. We used data from a face-to-face interview survey of older people receiving publicly-funded home care services, which was conducted in 2016–2017 (n=493), excluding missing values and proxy respondents (n=334). Chi-square tests, adjusted residuals, and analyses of variance were used to examine hypothesised associations between each attribute and a high number of relevant variables regarding health and well-being, disabilities, living arrangements, social contact and support, experience of service use, and the nature of the locality and environment. The factor structure and internal consistency were assessed by implementing a principal component analysis and Cronbach’s alpha test. The EQ-5D-3L and ASCOT were moderately correlated (r=0.429; p<0.001). The attributes were statistically positively related to the overall quality of life. For other tested variables, we found a high number of significant associations with the control over daily life, occupation, social participation, and personal cleanliness attributes, but fewer significant associations with the other attributes. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.697. The translated ASCOT was unidimensional. This assessment provides evidence to support the construct validity of the Finnish ASCOT. The results support the introduction of the Finnish ASCOT into Finland for use in practical applications. Future research on its factor structure and reliability would be useful.