Abstract
The main study design was a methodology type research to test the construction and validation of an instrument of data collection data for the attendance of the elderly people subscribed in the Health Family Program, anchored in the Theory of the Basic Human Need studied by Horta, and developed in three phases: 1) construction of the instrument, 2) validation of content of the instrument and 3) clinical testing with the elderly. In the first phase a review of literature was made aiming the definition of the 36 basic human’s needs and the identification of signals and symptoms of the elderly. The initial version of the instrument was guided by a list of affected necessities of the elderly, end 579 signals and symptoms were identified, and the Likert Scale was considered for each one of them. The second phase of the research was carried out in two stages. In the first stage a preliminary version of the instrument was directed to a group of twenty nurses, professors and nursing assistants, to test the content validate of the signals and symptoms a pre-test was made and 60,0% return was harvested. Out of 579 signals and symptoms, 181 harvested a average weighted mean of 80 which represented 80% of the total. With this results for the second stage for the construction of the instrument, a final format was made out, having seven components: 1) Identification, 2) General conditions, 3) Functional evaluation, including, instrumental and advanced the activities of the life daily, 4) Cognitive evaluation, 5) Evaluation of the social and familiar situation, 6) Evaluation of the basic human needs, and 7) Other information of interest for the nurses. In the second stage this instrument was directed to the twelve nurses for evaluation of the form and content of its final version, Out of 181 signals and symptoms, 12 return and harvested a average weighted mean of 8,0 which represented of the 67% of the total. The overall responses indicated through the findings, was found to be an applicable instrument to be used in the Health Family Program. Further testing was pursed. The last phase of the research, a clinical application of the instrument was made with twelve elderly persons in the Health Family Unit of the Sanitary District III, in the city of Recife - Pernambuco, to verify adequacy of the instrument in a practical and real context with 25 minutes standard application to fulfill the blanks. The overall data indicated that the methodology to test the construction and validation of the instrument of data collection for the attendance of elderly people in Health Family Program, has a strong degree of reliability and internal validity, demonstrating that the proposed instrument can be largely used for all the practical purpose by nursing professional assistance, teaching and research, whenever becomes necessary to collect reliable data related to the elderly people, their signs and symptoms.