Centre for Policy on Ageing



Measurement of subjective quality of life of elders
Author(s)	Rob Ranzijn, Mary Luszcz
Journal title	International Journal of Aging and Human Development, vol 50, no 4, 2000
Pages	pp 263-278
Keywords	Quality of life ; Well being ; Measurement ; Australia.
Annotation	An unresolved issue in gerontological research concerns the definition and measurement of quality of life (QoL)). This article focuses on subjective well-being, one of four components proposed by M P Lawton in 1991. There seems to be a growing consensus that most scales of well-being have at least two concepts in common, positive and negative affect. To test this hypothesis, two well-being scales, the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) were subject to confirmatory factor analysis using data on 1717 participants aged 70-103 from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Each scale was shown to contain factors of positive and negative affect. The authors conclude with a suggestion that measurement of QoL in older people should include, at a minimum, scales of positive and negative affect, as well as other measures relevant to the aspect of quality of life under consideration. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-001201202 A
Classmark	F:59: D:F:5HH: 3R: 7YA
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.