Abstract
Objective: To test the validity of a common measure of health-related quality of life (Short-Form-36 [SF-36]) in cognitively healthy older adults living in rural and urban Costa Rica. Method: Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to SF-36 data collected in 250 older adults from San Jose and Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Results: The best fitting model for the SF-36 was an eight first-order factor structure. A high correlation between the Mental Component Summary and Physical Component Summary scores was found. Region differences indicated that rural dwellers perceive a poorer health-related quality of life compared with the urban group. Discussion: Costa Rican older adults perceived health as a unidimensional construct. Age and urbanity of older adult Costa Ricans should be appreciated when trying to measure self-reported physical and mental health. Cultural context of the individuals should be considered when studying health-related quality of life.
Description
A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.
Citation
Valdivieso-Mora, E., Ivanisevic, M., Shaw, L. A., Garnier-Villarreal, M., Green, Z. D., Salazar-Villanea, M., Moncada-Jiménez, J., & Johnson, D. K. (2018) Health-Related Quality of Life of Older Adults in Costa Rica as Measured by the Short-Form-36 Health Survey. Gerontology & geriatric medicine, 4, https://doi.org/10.1177/2333721418782812