Measurement properties of the Community Wellbeing Index in older adults.
OBJECTIVE
The international wellbeing index (IWI) consists of two scales, the personal (PWI) and national (NWI) wellbeing indices. The community wellbeing index (CWI) is a new measure of the individual's level of satisfaction with the local place of residence. The main goal of this paper is to validate the CWI in a sample of older adults.


METHODS
The IWI was satisfactorily applied to survey the global quality of life of a community sample of 1,106 people aged 60 years and over residing in Spain. The CWI psychometric properties were studied using Rasch analysis. Classic psychometric parameters were also analyzed.


RESULTS
Tests of unidimensionality, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, revealed the presence of three subscales: community services, community attachment, and physical and social environment. To achieve adequate model fit of the three subscales to the Rasch model, one item (distribution of wealth) of the initial 11 was removed and item response categories were rescored. The person separation index was 0.82-0.85, indicating a good reliability. All items were free from gender bias. The three subscales displayed satisfactory convergent validity with the PWI and NWI and were able to discriminate between groups with high and low satisfaction with local place of residence.


CONCLUSIONS
The CWI, made up of three subscales, is a valid and reliable measure of subjective wellbeing related to the community as assessed by older adults. Further research with this promising measure should focus on cross-national comparisons.
National School of Public Health, Carlos III Institute of Health and CIBERNED, C/ Monforte de Lemos 5, Madrid, Spain. jforjaz@isciii.es
Maria João
MJ
Forjaz
Maria-Eugenia
ME
Prieto-Flores
Alba
A
Ayala
Carmen
C
Rodriguez-Blazquez
Gloria
G
Fernandez-Mayoralas
Fermina
F
Rojo-Perez
Pablo
P
Martinez-Martin
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003153:Community Health Services; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011594:Psychometrics; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires