A Health-Related Satisfaction with Life Scale Measure for Use with Cross-National Older Adults: A Validation Study

Objectives: Literature suggests some inconsistent results in the validity and reliability of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SwLS) in older samples. The objective was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the SwLS in a cross-cultural sample of older adults.

Methods: This is a validation study to assess the psychometric properties of the SWLS in a sample of 1291 older adults 75 years of age or older, cross-culturally diverse and living in the community. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed. Item analysis and reliability, were also assessed.

Results: The systematic procedure used in the SwLS validation points to a good level of psychometric properties, such as reliability, construct, criterion validity, external validity and divergent criterion validity, suggesting that the SwL is assessing a construct different from the ones evaluated by PANAS and OtLQ.

Conclusion: The SwLS has demonstrated reliability, validity, and reproducibility for use in measuring health-related satisfaction with life among older adults in policy programs and interventions in community settings.