Objective:
To analyse the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS) in family carers of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background:
Family carers, as informal caregivers, face multiple challenges that require a significant effort in terms of psychosocial adjustment, which must be considered by healthcare professionals in order to provide a holistic care.

Method:
An open, national cross-sectional study with one point in time evaluation was carried out. Family carers of patients with PD from twenty-five patient associations that belong to the Spanish Parkinson Federation were included. In addition to PAIS a health-related quality of life scale (SF-36) was also used.

Results:
A total of 450 family carers of patients with PD were included. 76% of the sample was women, 87.1% were married and 74.4% was the spouse of the patient with PD.
The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the ratio of the Chi-squared coefficient with its degrees of freedom were slightly greater than 2. The root mean square error of approximation presented a satisfactory fit value below 0.06. The comparative fit index and Tucker-Lewis index showed values slightly below the criteria established for a good fit (0.86 and 0.85, respectively). The factor loads of the items in the expected factors were satisfactory.
In terms of internal consistency, ordinal alpha coefficients were high (> 0.80) for the total PAIS score and for the seven domains, except for Domain I. Health care orientation, for which the alpha coefficient was 0.70.
Convergent validity showed that more than half of the correlations (64%) between the PAIS and the eight domains of the SF-36 were moderate or strong. All correlations were positive and in the expected direction (higher psychosocial adjustment to illness was associated with better health-related quality of life).

Conclusion:
The psychometric analysis results showed that the Spanish version of the PAIS-SR for family carers presents adequate indicators of reliability, internal and external validity, and is structured according to the seven-domain model proposed by the original author of the instrument.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/psychosocial-adjustment-to-illness-scale-in-family-carers-of-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-spanish-validation/