Development and testing of a comprehensive ageing problem scale for community-living older adults in South Korea

ABSTRACT

This study was undertaken to develop and validate an instrument for gerontological policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to comprehensively assess the nature and severity of problems experienced by older adults. The Comprehensive Ageing Problem Scale (CAPS) for older adults living in the community was created as a reliable and valid instrument that is easy to use. A cross-sectional strategy was utilized, in which a total sample of 1060 older South Korean adults was selected (through a proportionate random-stratified sampling method) from four regions nationwide. The psychometric properties of the instrument were verified using item analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). To achieve cross-validity, the total sample was randomly divided into two groups. The first group (for the EFA) was employed to identify the factor structure of the initial scale. The second group (for the CFA) was used to confirm the factor structure of the revised scale with the first group. The final version of the 19-item CAPS with four factors showed good internal consistency and a CFA confirmed the acceptability of the model fit.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging problem
• reliability
• validity
• assessment tool
• older adults
• South Korea

Notes on contributors

Minhong Lee, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Welfare at Dong-Eui University, Busan and currently serve as the Editor-in-chief of Korean Journal of Gerontological Social Welfare. His area of interest is long-term care, elder abuse, elder self-neglect, and integrated program development and evaluation for the older adults with disabilities.

Soon Eun Kim is Professor in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University, Seoul. His research focuses on urban policy and administration, local government and local council and intergovernmental relations. Now he expands his scope of study to social capital in aging society.

Jimin Choi is Post-Doctoral Associate in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University, Seoul. Her research focuses on local government, citizen participation institution and social capital.

Sang Weon Kim is Professor of Department of Police Administration at Dong-Eui University, Busan. His research focuses on social safety and social support.

Hwahwan Kim is Assistant Professor of Department of Geography at Chonnam National University, Gwangju. His research focuses on geo-visual analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government [grant number NRF-2013-S1A3A-2043223].