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Quality of life in old age: An investigation of well older persons in Hong Kong
Author(s) -
Cheng SheungTak,
Chan Alfred C.M.,
Phillips David R.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.20003
Subject(s) - psychology , quality of life (healthcare) , confirmatory factor analysis , psychological intervention , gerontology , exploratory factor analysis , socioeconomic status , generativity , interpersonal communication , sample (material) , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , demography , structural equation modeling , psychometrics , medicine , social psychology , psychiatry , population , statistics , chemistry , mathematics , chromatography , sociology , psychotherapist
What might add quality to life during the last period of the life cycle? In study I, five focus groups of elderly participants representing different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds provided descriptions of quality of life (QOL) from their own perspectives. These descriptions formed the basis of a questionnaire that was administered to a representative, random sample of older persons in Hong Kong (N = 1,616) in study II. The study II sample was further randomly split into two. Exploratory factor analysis on sample A identified four factors: generativity, interpersonal (including intergenerational) relations, physical functioning, and material life. Results of confirmatory factor analysis on sample B showed that the 4‐factor QOL model provided a good fit to the data, and that the constructs measured were identical (invariant) between older men and women and between the young‐old and the old‐old. In study III, the findings were disseminated back to an independent sample of older persons meeting in focus groups, who provided verbal confirmations to the model. The findings shed light on possible community psychology interventions to promote wellness in the elderly. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 32: 309–326, 2004.