Design and Evaluation of A Health Related Questionaire in Elderly

Document Type : Original Article (s)

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Community Medicine,First place on the specialized board in the country

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Background: As medicl cares improve and mortality rates decrease, an increase in elderly population is seen. These people need more attention for their health status. Among the different aspects of health, quality of life has a special importance, because of its ability to performance of daily life duties, general health emotion, and also effect of different physical, psychology, social and economic causes on it. This study aimed to design and validate a questionnaire to measure health related quality of life in Iranian elderly.Methods: This triangulation study was developed in Isfahan city, Iran in 2008-9. An item pool was developed based on semi-structured interviews with some elder people and some experts in geriatics, literature review, and other quality of life questionnaires. We used principal component analysis and focus group methodology to reduce the items and assessment the face, construct, and content validity. Internal reliability was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.Findings: The finalised questionnaire contained 15 items and 4 dimensions including psycholosy, physical, social, and economic status. The validity was confirmed by experts and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 72.3%.Conclusion: The prepared quality of life questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument and will enable researchers to investigate quality of life patterns in the elderly and to assess the impact of interventions of quality of life change in this population. The instrument warrants further testing and development with different elderly populations.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Isfahan Medical School
Volume 29, Issue 160 - Serial Number 160
September and October 2011
Pages 1728-1736

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History

  • Receive Date: 14 March 2011
  • Revise Date: 01 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 06 April 2022

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