Table 1.

Family Caregiving Measures and Operational Definitions with Sample Mean Scores and Questionnaire Reliability

Questionnaire Title, Author and Reference	Operational Definition	Mean, SD, Reliability
Family Caregiver Characteristics: Depression, Quality of Life, Physical Health, Daytime Sleepiness, Caregiving Esteem
Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression Scale (CES-D) (Radloff & Rae, 1979), 20-item Likert	Behavioral (nonpsychiatric) reactive depression/symptomatology	M = 8.01, SD = 5.74 Cronbach α = .86*
Physical and Mental Health SF-12v2 (Ware, et al., 1996; Larson, 2002), 7-item Likert	Physical and mental health status from the person’s perspective	Physical: M = 51.21, SD = 10.55, Cronbach α = .92* Mental: M = 45.89, SD = 10.63, Cronbach α = .87*
Epworth Daytime Sleepiness Scale (Johns, 1991), 8-item Likert	Daytime sleepiness, inability to concentrate in various situations	M = 8.22, SD = 4.38 Cronbach α = .84*
Caregiving Esteem (Given, et al.,1992), 7-item Likert	Positive and negative esteem gained from caring for ill family member	M = 29.84, SD = 6.86 Cronbach α = .81*
Caregiving Context Concepts: Length of Time Providing Home Care, Caregiving Preparedness, Participation in Problem-Solving in HPN Home Care, Family Income Adequacy
Length of time providing home care	Number of years the patient has been on HPN	M = 8.66, SD = 8.04
Caregiving Preparedness (Archbold, Stewart, Greenlick, et al., 1990), 1-item Likert	Ability to manage home care; low score equals caregiver strain	M = 3.27, SD = 1.10
Participation in Problem-Solving in HPN Home Care (Gustafson, Hawkins, Boberg, 1999), 5-item Likert	Rating of knowledge, assertiveness, treatment management participation, & problem solving with professionals	M = 41.11, SD = 6.14 Cronbach α = .89*
Family Income Adequacy (Fillenbaum, et al., 1981), 4-item: 1 = can’t make ends meet; 2 = have just enough; 3 = have a little extra; 4 = have money left over.	Ability to pay monthly bills in relation to current income	M = 2.69, SD = 0.92
Outcomes of HPN Caregiving: Patient and Caregiver Quality of Life & Occurrence of Catheter Related Infections
Caregiver (CG) Quality of Life Self Anchoring Ladder Scale (Cantril, 1965), 3-item Likert	Past, present, and future life satisfaction; reliable over time (Derenowski, 1991).	Patient: M = 5.96, SD = 2.23 Caregiver: M = 6.26, SD = 2.03
Patients’ HPN-related bloodstream infection occurrence (Yes/No)	Occurrence of bloodstream infections in the past 1000 days	Yes = 83%; No = 27%

^*All calculations of instrument reliability in this sample were above acceptable Cronbach scores (> .70)