Verification of the Mandarin Chinese version of Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey Scale in community-dwelling older people

Background: Advance care planning (ACP) has become increasingly critical for older people. The Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey (ACPES) develops targeted interventions for older people by measuring ACP-related behaviours, while previous studies focus only on advance directives. Moreover, while ACPES has English and Dutch versions, it does not yet have a Mandarin Chinese version (ACPES-MC) that can be used for Chinese populations. Objectives: To translate the ACPES into Mandarin Chinese and test its reliability and validity in community-dwelling older people with chronic diseases. Methods: The English version of the ACPES was translated into Mandarin Chinese using Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy. Four communities were recruited in central China (N = 450) by convenience sampling. Internal consistency and construct validity were used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the ACPES-MC. Results: The ACPES-MC consists of 34 items across five domains, with good internal consistency (0.817), with each dimension ranging from 0.606 to 0.881; exploratory factor analysis was distributed to four different factors and the total variance explained was 63.537%; and confirmatory factor analysis results showed that chi(2) = 3791.131 (p <.001), chi(2)/df = 1.106, CFI = 0.980, IFI = 0.980, NFI = 0.827 and RMR = 0.027, indicating a good model fit to previous factor structures. Conclusions: The ACPES-MC is an effective and reliable tool that can measure the ACP-related behaviour stage of community-dwelling older people and evaluate the effect of ACP intervention. Implications for practice: The ACPES-MC can be used in healthcare to identify potential ACP-related behaviours in community-dwelling older people with chronic diseases, including native and ethnic Chinese, evaluate their behaviour change stages and promote the application of ACP.