Developing the Person-Place Fit Measure for Older Adults: Broadening Place Domains

Literature calls for larger studies with empirically tested instruments about the meaning of place for older adults-studies that include a broader range of domains and neighborhood characteristics. Although rich narrative and qualitative data for small groups of older individuals exist, a measure with valid and reliable scores that includes the new, multiple domains about aging in place does not.

Findings are reported from a two-phase, nine-step, exploratory sequential mixed-methods process of measurement development for the Person-Place Fit Measure for Older Adults (PPFM-OA). In Phase I, a focus group (n = 8) and qualitative interviews (n = 77) with persons 65 and older were used to develop emerging domains of aging in place. Qualitative data about concepts and language informed the development of a quantitative item pool for the Mechanical Turk-distributed survey. Phase II included a Delphi process reducing the number of items in the PPFM-OA. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and reliability analysis further reduced the number of potential measure items.

Five factors emerged from the EFA. They were primary or basic needs/necessities (α = .84), neighborhood changes and moving (α = .88), identity and place attachment (α = .86), community value (α = .89), and services and resources (α = .78).

The development of a measure, such as the PPFM-OA, is crucial as more programs and services are created to address aging in place but uniform data for planning and evaluation are lacking. These initial quantitative analyses are informative for the next step, a larger-scale, quantitative evaluation.