Active aging scale in older adults: adaptation and validation in the mexican context

Abstract

Introduction. The active aging scale has demonstrated adequate levels of validity and feasibility in Spain; a literature review in Mexico reveals no instruments that assess the construct in the country.
Objective. To adapt and validate the active aging scale in Mexican seniors.
Methodology. Process study with six stages of validation, convenience sampling, 300 elderly people who attended a first-level public care clinic in Zacatecas, Mexico were selected.
Results. The final version of the scale is made up of four factors distributed in 23 items (Affective Support and Personal and Emotional Well-being, Health Control and Personal Autonomy, Economic Security and Prosocial Attitude) with a global consistency Cronbach’s
alpha of .87. Exploratory factor analysis showed a 4-factor structure KMO > .7, Bartlett = .83, confirmatory factor analysis showed adequate fit of the data to the proposed structure in four factors: ω = .73, ω = .80, ω = .72, and ω = .73 respectively. No significant differences were found between the four factors contrary to the original instrument, the economic security factor was found with a higher mean and the prosocial attitude factor with a lower mean, when comparing the four factors by age, marital status and education, participants reported higher means.
Conclusion. The instrument showed adequate internal consistency in the four factors and acceptable reliability to measure active aging in Mexican older people.