title: Development and validation of the activity significance personal evaluation (ASPEn) scale.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Engagement in desired occupations can promote health and wellbeing in older adults. Assessments of engagement often measure frequency, amount or importance of specific activities. This study aimed to develop a scale to measure older adults' evaluation of the extent to which their everyday activities are contributing to their health and wellness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighteen items, each scored with a seven-point rating scale, were initially developed by content experts, covering perceptions of how daily activities contribute to physical and mental health, as well as satisfaction and activity participation in the last six months. Rasch analysis methods were used to refine the scale using the pencil and paper responses of 460 community-living older adults.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Initial Rasch analysis indicated three unlabelled rating scale categories were seldom used, reducing measurement precision. Five items were conceptually different by misfit statistics and principal component analysis. Subsequently, those items were removed and the number of rating scale steps reduced to 4. The remaining 13-item, 4-step scale, termed the Activity Significance Personal Evaluation (ASPEn), formed a unidimensional hierarchy with good fit statistics and targeting. Person separation reliability (2.7) and internal consistency (.91) indicated the tool is appropriate for individual person measurement. Relative validity indicated equivalence between Rasch measures and total raw scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ASPEn is a brief, easily administered assessment of older adults' perception of the contribution of everyday activities to personal health and wellness. ASPEn may facilitate occupational therapy practice by enabling clinicians to assess change in meaning of an older adult's activity over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research and Leadership, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, The George Washington University; The Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Trudy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mallinson
authors.forename: Stacey L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Schepens Niemiec
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Leland
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vigen
authors.forename: Jeanine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blanchard
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment
keywords: aged; daily living activity; outcome assessment; personal satisfaction; quality of life