Repeatability of the questionnaire for the aging level indices.

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Public Health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Assessing health in large community populations requires reliable self-administered questionnaires.
• The aging level index is a tool for measuring health status in older adults.
• Repeatability is crucial for the validity of survey instruments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To confirm the repeatability of a series of self-administered questions for aging level indices.
• To evaluate the suitability of these questionnaires for large-scale community application.

Main Methods:

• Two surveys were conducted in 1994 and 1995 among 887 residents of Minamikawachi, Japan, using identical questionnaires.
• Kappa statistics were used to assess the repeatability of individual items and comprehensive indices.
• Correlation coefficients were calculated for aging level indices in individuals aged 65 and older.

Main Results:

• Overall repeatability for aging level indices was good to excellent, with 28 out of 45 items showing Kappa statistics over 0.4.
• High repeatability was observed for items related to chronic disease management (e.g., diabetes 0.846, hypertension 0.604) and daily living activities like shopping (0.619).
• Repeatability varied for subjective symptoms and acute diseases, with good results for hearing impairment (0.672) but low for eating (0.162) and bone fractures (0.073).

Conclusions:

• The series of self-administered questions and derived aging level indices demonstrate good repeatability.
• These validated tools are appropriate for application in community-based health surveys and assessments.
• The findings support the use of these questionnaires for monitoring health and aging in large populations.