Abstract
A first step to achieve successful aging is assessing functional wellbeing of older adults. This study reports the development of a culturally appropriate brief scale (the Multidimensional Functional Health Scale for Chinese Elderly, MFHSCE) to assess the functional health of Chinese elderly. Through systematic literature review, Delphi method, cultural adaptation, synthetic statistical item selection, Cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis, we conducted development of item pool, two rounds of item selection, and psychometric evaluation. Synthetic statistical item selection and psychometric evaluation was processed among 539 and 2032 older adults, separately. The MFHSCE consists of 30 items, covering activities of daily living, social relationships, physical health, mental health, cognitive function, and economic resources. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.92, and the comparative fit index was 0.917. The MFHSCE has good internal consistency and construct validity; it is also concise and easy to use in general practice, especially in communities in China.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Xiamen University) (Grand Number: CXB2012017), the Humanities and Social Science project of the Chinese Ministry of Education (Grand Number: 2012J01303), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grand Number: 81573257). We would like to thank all Community Health Service Centers in Xiamen municipal for their efforts and also thank all the participating older adults.
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Fanzhen Mao and Yaofeng Han are co-first authors.
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Mao, F., Han, Y., Chen, J. et al. Development of a Multidimensional Functional Health Scale for Older Adults in China. Community Ment Health J 52, 466–471 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9945-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9945-6