Development and psychometric evaluation of the Social Connectedness Index in nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease and dementia using the Minimum Data Set 3.0.

Objectives: To develop a reliable and valid measure of social connectedness among nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) using items available in the Minimum Dataset 3.0 (MDS).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective scale development study using the 2016 MDS with two populations of nursing home residents with ADRD: (1) new admissions (not post-acute care) (n = 146,694); (2) residents with comprehensive annual assessments (n = 294,704).