Journal of Applied Gerontology

Clinicians and researchers use body composition measurements to identify individuals who may be at risk of adverse health complications. This study compared two commonly used two-compartmental anthropometric models (bioelectrical impedance analysis [BIA] and air displacement plethysmography [ADP]) to determine whether these two cost-effective methods would provide similar fat free mass index (FFMI) values in a mixed and sex-separated sample population of healthy older adults. Community-dwelling older adults (N = 37, 18 men) aged 74.5 ± 5.2 years participated. FFMI_BIA was correlated with FFMI_ADP (r = .916); however, these correlations were markedly reduced when the population was split by sex (r < .60). The level of agreement between the difference values (FFMI_BIA – FFMI_ADP) fluctuated ± 2.1 kg/m² (illustrated via Bland-Altman plots), but these differences were not statistically different from 0. Findings from the current work suggest that clinicians must be cautious when using portable devices such as BIA to assess FFMI in an older adult population.

The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) is commonly used to measure dementia caregiver burden, but its factor structure is unclear. A two-factor structure for the 12-item ZBI, “personal strain” and “role strain,” has been shown, but recent data suggest that an additional factor of “guilt” is embedded in the “role strain” items. The 12-item ZBI administered to 194 informal rural and urban caregivers of persons diagnosed with dementia was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. A two-factor structure, with item loadings consistent with previously conceptualized constructs of “personal strain” and “role strain,” was found. Moreover, this factor structure was invariant to caregiver subgroups. When the predictive value of these factors was explored, only “personal strain” was important in predicting caregiver psychological distress, measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory. However, “role strain,” which included the hypothesized “guilt” items, did not appear to be an important predictor of caregiver distress.

The purposes of this article are to review the psychometric properties of the Lubben Social Network Scale–6 (LSNS-6) and to determine its utility in assessing social networks of an older adult community sample. We tested the LSNS-6 with Rasch methodology using a sample of 196 older adults, aged 55 and above who live in public and subsidized housing facilities. Rasch analysis showed unidimensionality of the overall scale, high person and item reliability, and good fit of individual items with one exception. Principal component analysis (PCA) of Rasch model residuals suggested family and friend subdimensions. Response categories demonstrated improvement when six categories were collapsed to four. A person-threshold map indicated ceiling and floor effects due to lack of items measuring less and more developed social networks. Recommendations provided in this article can make the LSNS-6 more psychometrically sound and useful in research and practical contexts.

Although prior literature has shown the plausibility of combining the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) items to form an expanded scale for measuring the degree of functional decline, this has not been shown in older adults with diabetes who are disproportionately affected by functional disability. Using the 2009 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data, we evaluated the factor structure of the pooled ADL and IADL items. Based on our study comprising 2,158 community-dwelling older adults (≥65 years) with diabetes, the unidimensional model exhibited good fit. Despite well-fitting indices, high correlations were observed between the latent constructs (>.70) of the multi-factor models, suggesting a lack of discriminant validity. These findings provide empirical support for a combined scale that can comprehensively and efficiently characterize the extent of functional disability in older adults with diabetes for research, risk adjustment, and evaluation in patient-centered medical homes.

The notion of age-friendliness is gaining increasing attention from policy makers and researchers. In this study, we examine the congruence between two types of age-friendly surveys: subjective assessments by community residents versus objective assessments by municipal officials. The study was based on data from 39 mostly rural communities in Manitoba, Canada, in which a municipal official and residents (M = 25 residents per community) completed a survey to assess age-friendly features in a range of domains, such as transportation and housing. Congruence between the two surveys was generally good, although the municipal official survey consistently overestimated communities’ age-friendliness, relative to residents’ ratings. The findings suggest that a survey completed by municipal officials can provide a reasonable assessment of age-friendliness that may be useful for certain purposes, such as cross-community comparisons. However, some caution is warranted when using only these surveys for community development, as they may not adequately reflect residents’ views.