Measuring older persons’ well-being

With an ageing population and an increasing demand for elderly care, it is more important than ever to invest in initiatives that contribute to the well-being and health of older people, while also preventing illness and poor health. In order to make informed decisions about prioritising the right interventions—both for those groups most in need and for identifying the most effective measures—reliable decision-making tools are essential. One example of such a tool could be quality-assured measurements of older people's well-being.

However, there is currently a lack of metrics for measuring the well-being of older people that are based on quality-assured measurements. This, in turn, makes it difficult to make decisions which individuals or groups are most in need of services, products, and interventions, and which services, products, or interventions are most effective in improving well-being.

It is crucial that a measurement tool neither disadvantages nor favours any subpopulation, for example, based on gender, geography, socio-economic background, or ethnic differences. Our goal to develop a better measurement tool than currently available, can in turn, facilitate more equitable and reliable investments in the well-being of older people.

The project consists of two interconnected sub-studies:

1. A systematic review of the measurement properties of existing tools for assessing well-being among older people, and
2. The design, testing, and development of a quality-assured measurement tool for assessing the well-being of older people in Sweden.

Better decision-making tools can help to develop and prioritise services, products, or interventions that enhance well-being among different groups of older people, whether they are men or women, living in rural or urban areas, or from different ethnic backgrounds. In this way, the research outcomes of the present project will benefit a wide range of people.

The project is part of the research in the research group The Health Outcome Measurements research group (HOMe) and the Linnaeus Knowledge Environment Sustainable Health.