title: Measuring psychosocial aspects of well-being in older community residents: performance of four short scales.
abstract: Given that the assessment of multiple dimensions of health/well-being can create respondent burden, assessment scales that are both effective and brief hold great attraction. In this study, we used Cronbach's alpha and correlational methods, including factor analysis, to evaluate the performance of four short scales measuring psychosocial aspects of well-being (depression, quality of life, sense of coherence, social support) in two samples of community-dwelling persons aged 75 and over (n = 414, n = 50). All four scales exhibited good range, high internal consistency, strong temporal reliability, and reasonable levels of construct validity. We conclude that they are practical contributors to measuring health in community-based older adults.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of Southampton, UK. acsihps@socsci.soton.ac.uk
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Raube
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Stuck
authors.forename: H U
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Aronow
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Draper
authors.forename: L Z
authors.initials: LZ
authors.lastname: Rubenstein
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Beck
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000145:classification* / Q000523:psychology; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012944:Social Support