Abstract
CASP-12 (Control, Autonomy, Self-realization, and Pleasure scale) is one of the most common internationally used measures for quality of life in older adults, although its structure is not clearly established. Current research aims to test the factor structure of the CASP-12, so as to provide evidence on reliability and external validity, and to test for measurement invariance across age groups. Data from 61,355 Europeans (≥60 years old) from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe wave 7 were used. CASP-12, EURO-D (European depression scale), self-perceived health, and life satisfaction measurements were included. Reliability and validity coefficients, competing confirmatory factor models, and standard measurement invariance routine were estimated. A second-order factor model with the original factor structure was retained. The scale showed adequate reliability coefficients except for the autonomy dimension. The correlation coefficients for external validity were all statistically significant. Finally, CASP-12 is scalar invariant across age. We conclude that the best-fitting factor structure retained allows using CASP-12 either by factors, or as an overall score, depending on the research interests. Findings related to CASP-12 measurement invariance encourage its use in the oldest-old too. When comparing the dimensions across age groups, as people age, autonomy slightly increases and the rest of the dimensions decline.
Highlights
Quality of life (QoL) has frequently been operationalized as an economic or healthrelated indicator, but this narrow measurement has been criticized [1]
Several competing Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were estimated. These competing models come from the structures that were supported in previous validations of the CASP-12
It is nowadays accepted that measuring the extent to which needs are fulfilled provides a measure of QoL richer than an overall personal assessment, allowing for comparisons between people’s different QoL scores [1]
Summary
Quality of life (QoL) has frequently been operationalized as an economic or healthrelated indicator, but this narrow measurement has been criticized [1] What these authors argue, following several sociological authors (Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, and Zygmunt Bauman), is that in current societies, at least in the so-called advanced ones, QoL is no longer determined by economic survival and/or health problems and diseases. These authors argue that ‘the contemporary phase of modernity (or postmodernity) is one where the personal is central and the construction of identity the ever-present task for everybody’ There are many authors who claim that the main problem for measuring QoL in old age is that it remains undertheorized and poorly defined [5,6,7]
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