Health-Related Quality of Life of Older Adults in Costa Rica as Measured by the Short-Form-36 Health Survey

Authors

Esmeralda Valdivieso-Mora, University of KansasFollow
Mirjana Ivanisevic, University of Kansas
Leslie A. Shaw, Cornell UniversityFollow
Mauricio Garnier-Villarreal, Marquette UniversityFollow
Zachary D. Green, University of Kansas
Monica Salazar-Villanea, University of Costa RicaFollow
Jose Moncada-Jimenez, University of Costa Rica
David K. Johnson, University of California

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

1-1-2018

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Source Publication

Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine

Source ISSN

2333-7214

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.

Comments

Published version. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Vol. 4 (January-December 2018). DOI. © 2018 The Author(s). Used with permission. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits noncommercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Recommended Citation

Valdivieso-Mora, Esmeralda; Ivanisevic, Mirjana; Shaw, Leslie A.; Garnier-Villarreal, Mauricio; Green, Zachary D.; Salazar-Villanea, Monica; Moncada-Jimenez, Jose; and Johnson, David K., "Health-Related Quality of Life of Older Adults in Costa Rica as Measured by the Short-Form-36 Health Survey" (2018). College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications. 602.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/nursing_fac/602