Falls efficacy scale - formal caregivers: adaptation and validation in Portuguese nursing homes

The literature review shows that the fear of falling is present in older persons’, but also in their careers and influences the performance of activities of daily living. The objective of this methodological study was to adapt and validate the Falls Efficacy Scale – Formal Caregivers. The development of the examined scale was based on the Falls Efficacy Scale – International, which was adapted for assessing the fear of falling in formal caregivers. The instrument was filled out by 319 formal caregivers of older people living in 11 Portuguese nursing homes for older people. Their average age was 46.8 ± 10.7 years, they had been working in this role for 13.4 ± 8.2 years, and 67.7 % of them attended vocational training in the workplace after being employed at the nursing home. Falls Efficacy Scale – Formal Caregivers, which contains 16 items, showed good internal consistency (α = 0.848). These items were organized into 3 factors after exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (lesser physical effort activities; intermediate physical effort activities, carried out in safe conditions; and intermediate physical effort activities, carried out in less safe conditions), with adequate convergent validity.