MEASURING PSYCHOSOCIAL-ASPECTS OF WELL-BEING IN OLDER COMMUNITY RESIDENTS - PERFORMANCE OF 4 SHORT SCALES

Given that the assessment of multiple dimensions of health/well-being can create respondent burden, assessment scales that are both effectiv e and brief hold great attraction. In this study, we used Cronbach's a lpha and correlational methods, including factor analysis, to evaluate the performance of four short scales measuring psychosocial aspects o f 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 interna l consistency, strong temporal reliability, and reasonable levels of c onstruct validity. We conclude that they are practical contributors to measuring health in community-based older adults.