New 24-item survey lets older Chinese adults rate their own integrated care outcomes

As populations age, health systems are moving toward integrated care models that coordinate medical, functional, and social support. Yet success is often judged by service use or clinical metrics rather than by what matters to older adults themselves. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) fill this gap, but few are designed specifically for integrated care in older Chinese adults.

The research team at Central South University developed the ICOPE-PROM, guided by PROMs theory. They first built a pre-test version from existing literature, then revised it into a final version using expert consultation. Data came from 436 older adults at 13 integrated care institutions in China. Reliability and validity were assessed with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

The final instrument contains 24 items across three dimensions (physical, psychological, and social) and eight subdimensions. Cronbach's alpha exceeded 0.80, composite reliability exceeded 0.90, and average variance extracted exceeded 0.50. The authors report that the scale met standards for structural, criterion-related, and convergent validity, with satisfactory model fit.

If confirmed, the tool could give clinicians, nurses, and care managers a brief, standardized way to capture outcomes that matter to older adults and to compare integrated care programs. Its multidimensional design reflects the broad aims of integrated care beyond disease control.

Several caveats apply. Only the abstract was available, so details on item content, sample characteristics, and sensitivity to change are unknown. Validation was done in China, so cross-cultural applicability is unproven. Test-retest reliability, responsiveness, and links to hard outcomes such as hospitalization or mortality were not reported in the abstract.