December 19, 2024

In 2023, the government reported that Singaporean citizens aged 65 and above constitute almost one fifth of Singapore’s population, marking an 11.7% increase from a decade ago. This demographic shift underscores the growing importance of assessing the quality of life (QoL) in public health, along with the development of a brief and time-saving measure of old age QoL. In the study ‘Examining the factor structure and validity of the WHOQOL-AGE among the oldest-old Chinese in Singapore’ (Frontiers in Public Health, 2023), Dr. Grand H.-L Cheng (NUS Medicine), Associate Professor Qiushi Feng (NUS Sociology and Anthropology), Professor Yap Seng Chong (NUS Medicine), and Professor Woon Puay Koh (NUS Medicine) investigate the efficacy and relevance of the WHOQOL-AGE scale for Singapore’s oldest-old Chinese population, aged 85 and above.

The researchers discovered that the WHOQOL-AGE scale exhibited a bifactor model comprising three specific factors—”health”, “environment”, and “mastery”—alongside a general “overall” factor. “Health” encompasses both physical and psychological well-being, “mastery” includes autonomy, capacity, and capital, while “environment” pertains to external factors such as social relationships and living conditions of the respondents.

This finding presented a more interpretable set of specific factors compared to previous research, indicating the practical applicability of the instrument for the oldest-old population. The data also demonstrated the uniqueness of these specific factors and confirmed the known-groups validity of the bifactor model, meaning the scale could effectively differentiate between distinct groups of respondents. Despite these positive findings, the researchers recommend replication studies to further validate the factor structure and other forms of validity of the scale.

Overall, the findings shed light on the validity of WHOQOL-AGE on Asian oldest-old samples, with the researchers recommending that further studies explore its applicability in other Asian societies.

Read the article here.