Clinimetric Properties of the “FIND-NEEDS” to Screen Geriatric Conditions

Abstract

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is used to thoroughly assess and identify complex healthcare problems among older adults. However, administration of CGA is time-consuming and labor intensive. A simple screening tool with the mnemonic “FIND-NEEDS” was developed to quickly identify common geriatric conditions. The present study was to evaluate the clinimetric properties of the FIND-NEEDS. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> The participants comprised first-visiting older adults aged 65 years and above (and who were able to communicate by themselves or with the help of a caregiver) who were assessed (October to December, 2021) using the FIND-NEEDS and CGA at geriatric outpatient clinics of a tertiary, referred medical center. The FIND-NEEDS was examined for its criterion-related validity and compared with the CGA results. Two types of scoring (summed score and binary score) of FIND-NEEDS and CGA were analyzed using Spearman correlation, sensitivity and specificity, and area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). <b><i>Results:</i></b> The mean age of the 114 outpatients was 78.3 ± 7.6 years, and 79 (69.3%) were female. The internal consistency was excellent when using all FIND-NEEDS items, and was acceptable when using domain scores. Exploratory factor analysis showed that most of the FIND-NEEDS domain scores had factor loadings higher than 0.3. Intercorrelations of binary scores between domains of FIND-NEEDS and CGA showed most domains were moderately correlated. The overall correlation of summed scores between FIND-NEEDS and CGA was high. The FIND-NEEDS summed score was moderately correlated with CGA score (<i>r</i> = 0.494; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), and the binary score showed excellent correlation (<i>r</i> = 0.944; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). When using the CGA score as the gold standard, the FIND-NEEDS showed excellent AUC (0.950), sensitivity (1.00), and specificity (0.90). <b><i>Discussion/Conclusion:</i></b> The present study demonstrated that the FIND-NEEDS had acceptable clinimetric properties to screen for geriatric problems among older adults. Further in-depth assessment and care plan can then be conducted afterwards.