The Quality of Care and Support (QOCS) for people with disability scale: development and psychometric properties.
A ready-to-use 17-item scale lets adults with intellectual disability rate their own care quality—no proxy needed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lucas-Carrasco et al. (2011) built a short survey that asks adults with intellectual disability how they feel about their care.
The team wrote 17 plain questions and tested them with two large international groups.
They also made a smiley-face version for clients who read poorly.
What they found
The 17-item QOCS scale held together well across both samples.
Adults with ID could answer it directly; proxies were not needed.
How this fits with other research
van Schrojenstein Lantman-de Valk et al. (2006) did the same thing for epilepsy. They also cut out proxy reports and let clients speak for themselves.
Pitetti et al. (2007) built a similar short set, but for health indicators instead of care quality.
Matson et al. (2013) later swept up the QOCS scale in a big review of 114 tools for adults with ID, showing the field keeps moving toward client voice.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, validated way to check care quality from the client’s view. Add the QOCS to your annual satisfaction survey. Use the smiley-face sheet during team meetings so clients can point to how they feel without reading.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper describes the development of a Quality of Care and Support (QOCS) scale for use with adult persons with physical and intellectual disabilities. In the pilot phase of the study, 12 centers from around the world carried out focus groups with people with physical and disabilities, their carers, and with professionals in order to identify themes that were relevant for their quality of care. Items generated from the focus groups were then tested in a pilot study with 1400 respondents from 15 different centers worldwide, with items being tested and reduced using both classical and modern psychometric methods. A field trial study was then carried out with 3772 respondents, again with the use of both classical and modern psychometric methods. The outcome of the two rounds of data collection and analysis is a 17-item module for assessment of quality of care in physically or intellectually disabled people. Further modifications are also proposed for the use of the QOCS with adults with intellectual disabilities, including simplification of wording of some of the items, the use of a three-point response scale, and the inclusion of smiley faces.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.12.030