Quality of Life amongst Older Brazilians: A Cross-Cultural Validation of the CASP-19 into Brazilian-Portuguese

Abstract

IntroductionAs population ageing becomes a global phenomenon the need to understand the quality of life of older people around the world has become increasingly salient. The CASP-19 is a well established measure of quality of later life. The scale is composed of 19 items which map onto the four domains of control (C), Autonomy (A), Self-Realisation (S) and Pleasure (P). It has already been translated to 12 languages and has been used in a number of national and international studies. However use of the scale outside of Europe has been very limited. The objective of this study was to translate and evaluate the use of the CASP-19 amongst older Brazilians.MethodsThe CASP-19 was translated from English to Portuguese, back-translated and submitted to an analysis of equivalence by a committee of judges. The scale was then administered to a sample of community dwelling older people in Recife, Brazil (n = 87), and tested for psychometric properties. The Control and Pleasure domains exhibited good internal consistency. By removing one item from each of the Autonomy and Self Realisation domains their internal consistency was improved.ResultsThe mean age of the sample was 75.6±0.7 years, subjects were mainly female (52.9%), white (52.9%), who lived without a partner (54%), and had a monthly income varying from USD 340.00 to USD 850.00. Translation and cross-cultural adaptation permitted good understanding and applicability of final version. Psychometric analyses revealed that the removal of two items improved the internal consistency of the Autonomy and Pleasure domains. Confirmatory factor analyses suggest that a 16 item, four factor, model best fits the data.ConclusionIn this small exploratory study the CASP-19 Brazil demonstrated good psychometric properties. It was easy to use for both participants and researchers. Hopefully future studies in Brazil will employ the scale so that more direct cross national comparisons can be made with older people in Europe and the US.

Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Quality of Life in Early Old Age (CASP- 19)

“…It is worth mentioning that each item was designed to represent the similar dimension as the original document as cited in Hyde et al 2003) (14). These studies also used factor analysis to determine construct validity evaluations of the older People's quality of Life questionnaire (CASP-19) (16,18,26).…”

Quality of life and its association with work, the Internet, participation in groups and physical activity among the elderly from the EpiFloripa survey, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina State, Brazil

“…This made it possible to distinguish between QoL and the factors that influence it. The instrument was easy to apply and was well understood by Brazilian elderly 6 . It focuses on the benefits and enjoyable aspects of aging, different from the negativity of the social and medical sciences which focus on the links between aging and functional and health decline 5,34 .…”

“…The use of CASP-16 is recent, and further studies to evaluate its structure are required. It is, nonetheless, an excellent tool for population surveys, since is made up of only a few items, and has good psychometric properties, internal consistency 6 and comparability with other countries. …”

“…Each item has four response options (often, sometimes, rarely or never), and for each answer is given a score. The score can range from 0, which indicates no QoL, to 48, which represents total satisfaction in all domains 6 .…”

“…According to Maslow's theory on human needs 4 , the concept of QoL for the elderly is defined by satisfaction in four areas: control, or the ability to actively intervene in one's environment; autonomy, or the right of an individual to be free from the unwanted interference of others; self-realization; and pleasure, which is an active and reflexive process of being human 5,6 . Based on this theory, the instrument Control, Autonomy, Self-realization and Pleasure (CASP) was developed to evaluate QoL in the elderly, from an active and positive perspective within the ageing process 5 .…”