Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY
Volume 22, Issue 8, Pages 829-837Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.jagp.2013.09.002
Keywords
Successful aging; measurement; validity; reliability
Categories
Funding
- Geylang East Home for the Aged
- Presbyterian Community Services
- Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society [Moral Neighborhood Links]
- Yuhua Neighbourhood Link
- Henderson Senior Citizens' Home
- NTUC Eldercare Co-op Ltd
- Thong Kheng Seniors Activity Centre (Queenstown Centre)
- Redhill Moral Seniors Activity Centre
- Biomedical Research Council
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) [03/1/21/17/214]
- National University of Singapore Academic Research Fund
- Lee Foundation
- NIH [MH080002]
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Objective: Dimension-specific objective measures are criticized for their limited perspective and failure to endorse subjective perceptions by respondents, but the validity and correlates of a subjective global measure of successful aging (SA) are still not well established. We evaluated the reliability and validity of a self-rated analogue scale of global SA in an elderly Singaporean population. Design: Cross-sectional data analysis using a comprehensive questionnaire survey. Participants and setting: 489 community-dwelling Singaporeans aged 65 years and over. Measurements: Self-rated SA on an analogue scale from 1 (least successful) to 10 (most successful) was analyzed for its relationship to criterion-based measures of five specific dimensions (physical health and function, mental well-being, social engagement, psychological well-being, and spirituality/religiosity), as well as outcome measures (life satisfaction and quality of life). Results: Self-rated SA was significantly correlated to measures of specific dimensions (standardized beta from 0.11 to 0.39), most strongly with psychological functioning (beta = 0.391). The five dimension-specific measures together accounted for 16.7% of the variance in self-rated SA. Self-rated SA best predicted life satisfaction (R-2 = 0.26) more than any dimension-specific measure (R-2 from 0.05 to 0.17). Self-rated SA, vis-a-vis dimension-specific measures, was related to a different set of correlates, and was notably independent of chronological age, sex, education, socioeconomic status, and medical comorbidity, but was significantly related to ethnicity. Conclusion: The self-rated analogue scale is a sensitive global measure of SA encompassing a spectrum of underlying dimensions and subjective perspectives and its validity is well supported in this study.
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