Table 1 Adaptations to the MAINtAIN questionnaire

Name

The name of the questionnaire changed to the MAastrIcht Nurses Activities INventory for Community Care (MAINtAIN-C).

Formulation

The formulation of all the items changed to the singular pronoun, “I,” to better fit the context, since community care professionals individually perform care activities. This was further supported by comments of two community care professionals, stating that they found it difficult to answer the questions on behalf of their team members.

Verbs

The IADL items changed to the verbs, “I discuss” (MAINtAIN-C, instead of “I encourage” (original MAINtAIN)), since these activities are performed by domestic support workers, who are not the end users of the MAINtAIN-C.

Wording

The wording of items was adapted to make them suitable for community care; for example, from “We prepare sandwiches for residents, even if they can do this themselves” (original MAINtAIN Behaviors, item 9), to “I discuss with clients if they can prepare their meals independently” (adapted MAINtAIN Behaviors item 12).

Excluded items

For the Behaviors scale, two specific nursing home items were excluded; for example, item 10: “We encourage residents to help set and clear the table.”

For the Barriers scale, four specific nursing home items were excluded from the questionnaire since they were considered less relevant for community care; for instance, item 8: “Residents on my ward consider it perfectly normal to have others move them instead of moving about themselves.”

Added Items

For the Behaviors scale, four specific community care items were added; for instance, new item 14: “I advise clients about the added value of consulting other disciplines (e.g., physical therapy) to encourage the independent performance of ADLs, since they were considered relevant for measuring behavior in the community care setting.”

For the Barriers scale, four specific community care items were added; for example, new item 10: “An overburdened family or informal caregiver limits clients in performing ADLs and IADLs independently.”

Order

The order of the items was changed to cluster activities as much as possible, based on the clustering of the GARS for the Behaviors scale [3], as well as the original clustering of the original MAINtAIN for the Barriers scale.

Number of items

For the Behaviors scale, the number of items changed from 19 to 20.

For the Barriers scale, the number of items remained the same as the original MAINtAIN (33 items).