The development of the Geriatric Index of Communicative Ability (GICA) for measuring communicative competence of elderly: A pilot study

• We developed the index investigating the communication change of the elderly.
• GICA was organized with three questions in each of six sub-domains.
• The reliability and validity of GICA were demonstrated in this study.

A change in communicative ability, among various changes arising during the aging process, may cause various difficulties for the elderly. This study aims to develop a Geriatric Index of Communicative Ability (GICA) and verify its reliability and validity. After organizing the areas required for GICA and defining the categories for the sub-domains, relevant questions were arranged. The final version of GICA was completed through the stages of content and face validity, expert review, and pilot study. The overall reliability of GICA was good and the internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .786) and test-retest reliability (range of Pearson’s correlation coefficients: .58–.98) were high. Based on this verification of the instrument’s reliability and validity, the completed GICA was organized with three questions in each of six sub-domains: hearing, language comprehension & production, attention & memory, communication efficiency, voice and reading/writing/calculation. As a tool to measure the communicative ability of elderly people reliably and appropriately, GICA is very useful in the early identification of those with communication difficulties among the elderly.