Aged care staff (N = 149) from 20 low level care facilities and community care facilities in Melbourne, Australia, completed the Knowledge of Late-Life Depression Scale 鈥?Revised.
Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and reliability analysis, the Knowledge of Late-Life Depression Scale 鈥?Revised was found to demonstrate three robust and internally consistent factors. These factors were: symptoms of depression, facts about depression, and myths of depression. The revised measure was found to yield superior psychometric properties compared to the original measure.
Replication studies are required, especially with other aged carer samples to ensure that the factor structure and internal consistency of the measure are supported across different aged care contexts in Australia and elsewhere.
The Knowledge of Late-Life Depression 鈥?Revised is a measure that can be used by researchers and agencies to assess the knowledge of depression among professional care staff. The measure is expected to be especially useful as an assessment tool for training and educational purposes.