Quality of Life in Mexican Older Adults: Factor Structure of the SF-36 Questionnaire

Abstract

The evaluation of quality of life may enable researchers to produce information that may improve health care and the quality of older people’s lives. This research has two main goals: the first is to assess the psychometric properties of the SF-36 Health Questionnaire (construct validity and internal consistency), and the second, to calculate the factorial invariance of the questionnaire in two random, independent samples (i.e., cross-validation). The total sample consisted of 970 elderly subjects from the cities of Chihuahua and Monterrey, Mexico, with an average age of 71.18 (SD = 7.69). The factor structure of the SF-36 was analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The analyses show an adequate four-factor structure. The four-factor structure (Physical Function, Body Pain, Physical Role and Psychological Health) shows adequate reliability and validity indices. In addition, the results from the CFA analyses for the subsamples provide strong evidence of the stability of the four-factor structure. Future research should consider replicating the present findings in larger samples.