TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of a common scale for measuring healthy ageing across the world
T2 - results from the ATHLOS consortium
AU - ATHLOS Consortium
AU - Sanchez-Niubo, Albert
AU - Forero, Carlos G.
AU - Wu, Yu Tzu
AU - Giné-Vázquez, Iago
AU - Prina, Matthew
AU - De La Fuente, Javier
AU - Daskalopoulou, Christina
AU - Critselis, Elena
AU - De La Torre-Luque, Alejandro
AU - Panagiotakos, Demosthenes
AU - Arndt, Holger
AU - Ayuso-Mateos, José Luis
AU - Bayes-Marin, Ivet
AU - Bickenbach, Jerome
AU - Bobak, Martin
AU - Caballero, Francisco Félix
AU - Chatterji, Somnath
AU - Egea-Cortés, Laia
AU - García-Esquinas, Esther
AU - Leonardi, Matilde
AU - Koskinen, Seppo
AU - Koupil, Ilona
AU - Mellor-Marsá, Blanca
AU - Olaya, Beatriz
AU - Pająk, Andrzej
AU - Prince, Martin
AU - Raggi, Alberto
AU - Rodríguez-Artalejo, Fernando
AU - Sanderson, Warren
AU - Scherbov, Sergei
AU - Tamosiunas, Abdonas
AU - Tobias-Adamczyk, Beata
AU - Tyrovolas, Stefanos
AU - Haro, Josep Maria
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/6/1
Y1 - 2021/6/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Research efforts to measure the concept of healthy ageing have been diverse and limited to specific populations. This diversity limits the potential to compare healthy ageing across countries and/or populations. In this study, we developed a novel measurement scale of healthy ageing using worldwide cohorts. METHODS: In the Ageing Trajectories of Health-Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies (ATHLOS) project, data from 16 international cohorts were harmonized. Using ATHLOS data, an item response theory (IRT) model was used to develop a scale with 41 items related to health and functioning. Measurement heterogeneity due to intra-dataset specificities was detected, applying differential item functioning via a logistic regression framework. The model accounted for specificities in model parameters by introducing cohort-specific parameters that rescaled scores to the main scale, using an equating procedure. Final scores were estimated for all individuals and converted to T-scores with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. RESULTS: A common scale was created for 343 915 individuals above 18 years of age from 16 studies. The scale showed solid evidence of concurrent validity regarding various sociodemographic, life and health factors, and convergent validity with healthy life expectancy (r = 0.81) and gross domestic product (r = 0.58). Survival curves showed that the scale could also be predictive of mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The ATHLOS scale, due to its reliability and global representativeness, has the potential to contribute to worldwide research on healthy ageing.
AB - BACKGROUND: Research efforts to measure the concept of healthy ageing have been diverse and limited to specific populations. This diversity limits the potential to compare healthy ageing across countries and/or populations. In this study, we developed a novel measurement scale of healthy ageing using worldwide cohorts. METHODS: In the Ageing Trajectories of Health-Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies (ATHLOS) project, data from 16 international cohorts were harmonized. Using ATHLOS data, an item response theory (IRT) model was used to develop a scale with 41 items related to health and functioning. Measurement heterogeneity due to intra-dataset specificities was detected, applying differential item functioning via a logistic regression framework. The model accounted for specificities in model parameters by introducing cohort-specific parameters that rescaled scores to the main scale, using an equating procedure. Final scores were estimated for all individuals and converted to T-scores with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. RESULTS: A common scale was created for 343 915 individuals above 18 years of age from 16 studies. The scale showed solid evidence of concurrent validity regarding various sociodemographic, life and health factors, and convergent validity with healthy life expectancy (r = 0.81) and gross domestic product (r = 0.58). Survival curves showed that the scale could also be predictive of mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The ATHLOS scale, due to its reliability and global representativeness, has the potential to contribute to worldwide research on healthy ageing.
KW - data integration
KW - functional ability
KW - Healthy ageing
KW - intrinsic capacity
KW - item response theory
KW - scale
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112124794&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/ije/dyaa236
DO - 10.1093/ije/dyaa236
M3 - Article
C2 - 33274372
AN - SCOPUS:85112124794
SN - 0300-5771
VL - 50
SP - 880
EP - 892
JO - International Journal of Epidemiology
JF - International Journal of Epidemiology
IS - 3
ER -