Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Low Vision Individuals’ Home Modification Questionnaire: Psychometric Study

Visual impairment makes individuals dependent on tools in their daily activities. Home modifications are one of the important methods for increasing the independence of individuals with visual impairments as all individuals frequently interact with their home environment in their everyday lives. This study was an endeavor to develop the Home Modification and Improvement Questionnaire for visually impaired people and study its psychometric characteristics".

A cross-sectional study of questionnaire development and validation was conducted. The structure of the questionnaire was completed in 3 stages, defining the structure, creating items, and determining the format. The instrument was validated in the 3 stages of assessing the items, checking the face, content, and structural validity, and reliability of the retest-test, and performing a pilot study of the instrument. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to calculate the validity of the construct. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test was used for factor analysis and the correlation between questions was evaluated using Bartlett's test.

Exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation yielded 3 factors (light, color, and home architecture) with eigenvalues of greater than 1 and factor loadings of greater than 0.3. Cronbach's alpha coefficients (index of internal consistency) of the scales of performance, knowledge, and attitude were 0.81, 0.88, and 0.69, respectively (P ≤ 0.001). The intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs), as the measure of test-retest reliability, of the scales of performance, knowledge, and attitude were 0.82, 0.87, and 0.78, respectively.

Living comfortably at home for low vision individuals requires the consideration of the 3 elements of light, color, and home architecture and establishment of a planned and organized atmosphere. The current questionnaire can be utilized as a quantitative tool to evaluate the attitude, knowledge, and performance of this population's families in terms of their contribution to addressing the needs of this population.