Mealtime Caregiving Engagement for Residents with Advanced Dementia: Item Response Theory Analysis

The 18-item Mealtime Engagement Scale was developed to measure mealtime caregiving engagement with preliminary reliability and validity. Item Response Theory models (i.e., Rasch model and Rating Response Model) may provide insight into item functioning. This was a secondary analysis of 87 videotaped mealtime observations involving 18 nursing home staff providing care to residents with advanced dementia. In both models, item difficulties were distributed considerably along the latent trait and highly correlated. Two thirds of the 18 items were located at the moderate level of mealtime engagement. “Providing one-on-one assistance” was most frequently observed, and “re-approaching individual to continue meal” was least frequently observed. All items showed desirable fit to the models. The Rasch model had a significantly smaller deviance than the Rating Response Model, indicating an overall better fit. Findings provided preliminary support for item functioning and pointed out directions for item revisions. Future testing in larger diverse samples is needed.