Cross-cultural measurement invariance in the satisfaction with food-related life scale in older adults from two developing countries

Abstract

BackgroundNutrition is one of the major determinants of successful aging. The Satisfaction with Food-related Life (SWFL) scale measures a person’s overall assessment regarding their food and eating habits. The SWFL scale has been used in older adult samples across different countries in Europe, Asia and America, however, there are no studies that have evaluated the cross-cultural measurement invariance of the scale in older adult samples. Therefore, we evaluated the measurement invariance of the SWFL scale across older adults from Chile and Ecuador.MethodsStratified random sampling was used to recruit a sample of older adults of both genders from Chile (mean age = 71.38, SD = 6.48, range = 60–92) and from Ecuador (mean age = 73.70, SD = 7.45, range = 60–101). Participants reported their levels of satisfaction with food-related life by completing the SWFL scale, which consists of five items grouped into a single dimension. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine cross-cultural measurement invariance of the SWFL scale.ResultsResults showed that the SWFL scale exhibited partial measurement invariance, with invariance of all factor loadings, invariance in all but one item’s threshold (item 1) and invariance in all items’ uniqueness (residuals), which leads us to conclude that there is a reasonable level of partial measurement invariance for the CFA model of the SWFL scale, when comparing the Chilean and Ecuadorian older adult samples. The lack of invariance in item 1 confirms previous studies with adults and emerging adults in Chile that suggest this item is culture-sensitive. We recommend revising the wording of the first item of the SWFL in order to relate the statement with the person’s life.ConclusionsThe SWFL scale shows partial measurement invariance across older adults from Chile and Ecuador. A 4-item version of the scale (excluding item 1) provides the basis for international comparisons of satisfaction with food-related life in older adults from developing countries in South America.

In the Labyrinth of Dietary Patterns and Well-Being—When Eating Healthy Is Not Enough to Be Well

“…This means that nutrition and satisfaction or dissatisfaction with food consumption are associated with the broadly defined well-being. These findings are in line with the current state of knowledge and are consistent with the results of studies of, among others [11,60,64,65].…”

“…Our research results show that there is a strong relation between life satisfaction measured on the SWLS scale and satisfaction connected with the area of food consumption, measured on the SWFL scale (r-Pearson correlation between SWB and FWB was r = 0.59 and was statistically significant on the level p < 0.01 (both ways). The correlation between SWB and FWB in the present study is similar to those obtained in China [11], which was 0.58, in Chile: 0.53 [60], and higher than in Ecuador: 0.39 [64] and in European countries [2], which was 0.36. It should be pointed out that not only the overall scores of SWLS and SWFL, but also all statements from both scales are correlated.…”

Medication Beliefs and Adherence to Antiseizure Medications

“…This psychometric exercise was also necessary since BMQ had not been earlier adapted for the contexts specific to us, i.e., epilepsy and elderly subjects. Others have shown that item-level invariance may still be present even among validated questionnaires [ 32 ]. Moreover, estimating the psychometric properties was also essential to establish that the results we obtained were based on a questionnaire that was tested in the same population from which our other results were derived.…”

The gender role in the relationship between food-related perceived resources and quality of life among ecuadorian elderly

“…On this study the Spanish-language version of the SWLS and the SWFLS was used. On a study performed with the elderly population of Ecuador (Schnettler et al, 2017a), both scales showed good levels of internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.85-0.86). Dn both scales the score can range from 6 to 36, and higher scores correspond to higher levels of SWLS and SWFLS.…”

“…There is relatively little in the literature on the relation between food-related perceived resources (FPR) and satisfaction with food-related life; nevertheless, there is some evidence about the relationship between food and QDL (Berenbaum, 2002;Hausman, 2005;Schnettler et al, 2015;Schnettler et al, 2018). Food is an important component of QDL (Grunert et al, 2007;Lobos et al, 2017;Match et al, 2005;Schnettler et al, 2017a;Schnettler et al, 2017b). The idea implicit in this concept is that people have a set of FPR and the sum of these resources contributes significantly to the satisfaction with food and therefore with QDL.…”