Development and Validation of the Internet-Related Quality of Life Scale in Older Adults

The aging process, increasing level of migration, long-term effect of world crises such as COVID-19 pandemic or outbreak of the war in Ukraine may significantly affect individual’s perception of quality of life. The massive development of modern technologies, which could be seen as a solution for some problems that older populations are facing with (e.g. the weakening social ties, loneliness), is also significant for quality of life. These may result in a need for revision of the quality of life indicators. The new tool for measuring quality of life in older population, that reflects the observed societal changes, including the growing development of new information and communication technologies, is needed.

One of the aims of the project “COURAGE - Poland-Comparison After Decade” was to develop and validate the Internet-related quality of life scale – a tool designed to measure the impact of internet use on quality of life in the population of older adults.

After conceptualization and operationalization, a preliminary version of the scale was created. Content validity based on the expert assessment and evaluation of the questions by the convenience sample form the target population was performed. The scale was piloted and the final version was tested in cross-sectional study conducted in 2024. Face-to face interviews with 2000 people aged 50+, randomly selected from the population of older Poles, were done.

The initial pool of 36 items were developed based on the WHO multidimensional definition of quality of life. After content validity assessment (e.g. the two rounds of experts assessment of relevance, clarity and ambiguity) and pilot study, 15 items were chosen to use them in the field study. The Item Response Theory is going to be used to assess construct validity and reliability of the scale.

This research was funded in whole by National Science Centre, Poland [2022/45/B/NZ7/04030]