Reliability and validity testing of the physical resilience measure

The purpose of this study was to test reliability and validity of the Physical Resilience Scale.

A single-group repeated measure design was used and 130 older adults from three different housing sites participated. Participants completed the Physical Resilience Scale, Hardy-Gill Resilience Scale, 14-item Resilience Scale, 5-item Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Yale Physical Activity Survey at baseline and again 2 weeks later.

There was evidence of validity of the Physical Resilience Scale based on model testing using a Rasch Analysis and significant correlations with commonly used general resilience measures. Evidence of reliability was supported based on a Separation Index and alpha coefficient of .89 and test-retest reliability with correlations between testing times of .73.

Future use of the Physical Resilience Scale should consider adding more challenging items to better differentiate those particularly high in physical resilience.