The engagement in healthy ageing promotion scale: Development and validation

Purpose of the study: This article reports the development and Italian validation of a new self-report instrument (The Engagement in Healthy Ageing Promotion Scale) that assesses older people engagement in healthy ageing promotion and is grounded on an ecological operational definition of this phenomenon. Methods: 14 items were developed basing on a previously conducted qualitative study exploring older adults’ experiences and meanings of engagement in health promotion. Analyses were conducted on an Italian sample of 540 adults aged 60 years and older, randomly split into an exploratory (n = 308) and a confirmatory (n = 232) group. A final scale of 8 items was validated with confirmatory factor analyses. Concurrent and criterion validity of the final items were evaluated with measures of patient activation, readiness to change lifestyle and wellbeing. Results: Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the one-factor structure of the eightitems scale, with a variance explained of 44% and an eigenvalue equal to 3.5. The fit values of the final model indicated a good model fit. Internal consistency of the scale was good, with a Cronbach’s Alpha equal to 0.81. Finally, concurrent and criterion validity revealed significant relationships with the patient activation construct (r = .401; p = .000), with the readiness to change lifestyle (r = .211; p = .000), and with older people’s wellbeing (r = .205; p = .000). Implications: The developed instrument can represent a useful tool to estimate the extent to which older citizens are engaged in health promotion activities, as well as to develop and evaluate interventions aimed to improve wellbeing and preventive behaviours of older citizens.