Reliability Analysis of a Self-Developed Elderly Well-Being Scale

Introduction/Objective: The well-being of older people needs to be assessed periodically to plan and manage proper care. This study aimed to assess the validity and analyse the reliability of the self-developed Well-being scale to determine the suitability of the scale for identifying the well-being status of older people and evaluating effectiveness of self-structured nursing interventions. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used among 31 older people living in a rural community in the Kavrepalanchok district, Nepal in September 2021. A purposive sampling technique was used, and face-to-face interview in home visit was done using Self-structured Elderly Well-being Scale. The internal consistency reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha and test re-test on a three and six point Likert scale. Results: Respondents were more female (51.6%) with a mean age of 66.70 ±4.65, and 19 (61.29%) were in the age group 60-67 years. There are four domains in the well-being scale. The physical well-being scale was found to be highly reliable in Cronbach’s alpha (0.892), the test re-test method (0.9957), and the test re-test reliability was higher than Cronbach’s alpha. The psychological well-being scale was also highly reliable in Cronbach’s alpha (0.871) and test re-test method (0.9788). Similarly, the reliability of the social and spiritual well-being scale were good in Cronbach’s alpha (0.758 & 0.774) and very good in the test re-test (0.9100 & 0.8876), respectively. The inter-item reliability was also found suitable. Conclusion: The elderly well-being scale demonstrated exemplary performance in tests of reliability and validity. It can individually assess physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being and older people’s overall well-being in the community and institutional settings. It is a suitable tool for assessing well-being status and evaluating the effectiveness of nursing interventions. Key words: Well-being Scale, Reliability, Cronbach’s alpha, Persons’ Correlation, Older People and Rural Community.