Hajime Iwasa1,2,3, Yukie Masui4,5, Hiroki Inagaki4,5, Yuko Yoshida4,5, Hiroyuki Shimada4,5,6, Rika Otsuka4,5, Kazunori Kikuchi4,5, Kumiko Nonaka4,5, Hiroto Yoshida5,7, Hideyo Yoshida4,5, Takao Suzuki4,5,6. 1. Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, 1 Hikarigaoka, Fukushima, 960-1295, Japan. hajimei@fmu.ac.jp. 2. Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan. hajimei@fmu.ac.jp. 3. Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Tokyo, Japan. hajimei@fmu.ac.jp. 4. Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan. 5. Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Tokyo, Japan. 6. National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Japan. 7. Tohoku Bunka Gakuen University, Sendai, Japan.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Older adults' ever-improving health and changing lifestyles necessitate the development of a scale that can better measure their competence at a higher level. We developed the Japan Science and Technology Agency Index of Competence (JST-IC) via item analysis and assessed its psychometric properties. METHODS: Participants were 1306 community-dwelling older adults (623 men and 683 women, 74.0 ± 2.8 years old) who completed the 54-item draft JST-IC to determine their level of independence. Three procedures (including item selection, factor analyses, and reliability and validity analyses) were conducted to finalize the JST-IC and evaluate its psychometric properties. RESULTS: The item selection resulted in exclusion of 26 items for the following reasons: (a) 15 because of very high ratios (80% or more) of responders who answered "yes", (b) one because of gender differences (phi coefficient = 0.34), (c) five because of their weak association with the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence (TMIG-IC) (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.30 or smaller), and (d) five because of redundancy of meaning with other items. Through factor analyses, we selected 16 items with a four-factor solution for the final version. JST-IC score exhibited a near-normal distribution and significant gender and age differences, and had moderate correlations with size of social network and level of subjective well-being and strong correlations with TMIG-IC score, physical fitness, and health literacy. CONCLUSIONS: The JST-IC is useful for assessing competence at a higher level in community-dwelling older adults.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Older adults' ever-improving health and changing lifestyles necessitate the development of a scale that can better measure their competence at a higher level. We developed the Japan Science and Technology Agency Index of Competence (JST-IC) via item analysis and assessed its psychometric properties. METHODS:Participants were 1306 community-dwelling older adults (623 men and 683 women, 74.0 ± 2.8 years old) who completed the 54-item draft JST-IC to determine their level of independence. Three procedures (including item selection, factor analyses, and reliability and validity analyses) were conducted to finalize the JST-IC and evaluate its psychometric properties. RESULTS: The item selection resulted in exclusion of 26 items for the following reasons: (a) 15 because of very high ratios (80% or more) of responders who answered "yes", (b) one because of gender differences (phi coefficient = 0.34), (c) five because of their weak association with the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence (TMIG-IC) (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.30 or smaller), and (d) five because of redundancy of meaning with other items. Through factor analyses, we selected 16 items with a four-factor solution for the final version. JST-IC score exhibited a near-normal distribution and significant gender and age differences, and had moderate correlations with size of social network and level of subjective well-being and strong correlations with TMIG-IC score, physical fitness, and health literacy. CONCLUSIONS: The JST-IC is useful for assessing competence at a higher level in community-dwelling older adults.
Entities:
Keywords:
Community-dwelling older adults; Competence; Functional capacity; Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL)