Measurement of Social Engagement of Nursing Home Residents During an Exercise Program.

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to describe the validity and reliability of the Fun and Social Engagement Evaluation (FUSE) developed to evaluate and measure social engagement displayed by nursing home residents during Bingocize. The FUSE combines health care worker observation and a resident self-report measure to produce a score that represents a resident's total engagement. Method: To describe validity, trained health care workers who implement Bingocize were surveyed about the items on the FUSE. Visual inspection of bar graphs of responses to survey questions were used to determine content validity. To assess reliability of the FUSE, nursing home residents were evaluated by trained research assistants. Test--retest reliability of the participant scores 1 week apart was determined with the bivariate correlation (Pearson product-- moment correlation coefficient). Results: For validity, the majority of survey respondents indicated that the behaviors were representative of nursing home residents during Bingocize. For reliability, there was moderate--strong test--retest reliability over 1 week (r = .60). Interrater reliability between two raters observing eight participants across two sessions was significant, κ = .68 (95% CI [.504,.848]), p < .0001. Conclusion: Results offer evidence that the FUSE is a valid and reliable method for determining social engagement during Bingocize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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