Happiness assessment tool for the elderly.

Abstract

Background : There have been several tools used to quantify well-being of the elderly, but not about their happiness. Although, happiness is a subjective view of one’s moment of life, measuring happiness may comprise of many factors, which vary from one age group to the other. Hence, Happiness Assessment Tool for Elderly People was developed as a multidimensional self-rating questionnaire to measure happiness and can used as guide keys to improve the happiness of individual elderly.

Objective : Building the questionnaire and pilot measuring happiness of the elderly.

Design : Measurement Study.

Setting : A residential home in Thailand.

Materials and Methods : Data were collected from 78 elderly people. Questionnaires included: 1) General background; 2) Happiness Assessment Tool for Elderly People; 3) WHOQOL – BREF –THAI.

Results : Reliability of Happiness Assessment Tool for the Elderly is 0.887, correlation with WHOQOL-BREF-THAI (r) is 0.738 (p value <0.01) and factor loading of 7 components from factor analysis are 0.615 - 0.840.

Conclusion : Reliability of Happiness Assessment Tool for the Elderly is high, content validity is good and significant. It also has good con struct validity from factor analysis, which showes 7 components. This tool is appropriate for quantify happiness of the Thai elderly in their nursing home.