BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet

Test: Expectations Regarding Aging Survey (ERA – 38)

Year: 2002

Domain: Psychological

Assessment Tool Category: Mental Health

Variations/Translations: Shortened ERA – 12 (short form version, expected to take only 5 minutes, measures only three scales – physical health, mental health and cognitive function)

Setting: Home

Method of Delivery: Survey

Description: The ERA -38 survey was developed to measure expectations regarding aging, health behaviours and health service use, all of which may be related to whether an older adult is missing out on services/treatments that are available for modifiable health issues. The survey was developed using focus groups and interviews with older adults. After extensive pilot testing, the survey was field-tested to determine validity and reliability.

Scoring/Interpretation: The scale focuses on 10 dimensions related to aging (General health, Cognitive function, Mental health, Functional independence, Sexual function, Pain, Urinary incontinence, Sleep, Fatigue, Appearance) and is divided into two sections : (1) What the participant expects for themselves about aging and (2) The participant’s expectations for aging in older people in general. Questions for both sections are based on a 4-item scale (Definitely True, Somewhat True, Somewhat False, and Definitely False). Possible scores can range from 0 to 100; a higher score is considered to be consistent with Rowe & Kahn’s (1987) model of successful aging, whereas a low score is associated with health decline and function.

Time to Administer: On average, less than 15 minutes

Availability: Version ERA-38 can be accessed as a part of the original journal article. Patrons will need to extract questions as needed; a single printable copy is not available of each. A copy may be requested from C. Sarkisian directly at csarkisian@mednet.ucla.edu

Software: N/A – Survey is produced in paper format only

Website: http://gim.med.ucla.edu/FacultyPages/Hays/OtherSurveys/ERA38.pdf

Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative

Validity (Quantitative): Construct validity is supported by correlations with age, activities of daily living, the SF-12 physical and mental component scores and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Exercise caution as external validity may not be strong since population was quite homogenous.

Reliability (Quantitative): The ERA-38 demonstrates adequate internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) for group-level comparison. All scales other than ‘pain’ demonstrate good internal consistency reliability (α >= 0.73). Item discrimination across scales was good with all other scales other than ‘pain’ having at least 80% of items correlated significantly better with their own scale than with others’ (>= 0.80). Test-retest reliability has not been examined and should be conducted in future investigations before the measure is used to evaluate longitudinal change over time.

References:

Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1987). Human aging: Usual and successful. Science, 237, 143–149.

Sarkisian, C. A., Hays, R. D., Berry, S. & Mangione, C. M. (2002). Development, reliability, and validity of the expectations regarding aging (ERA – 38) Survey. The Gerontologist, 42(4), 534-542.

Sarkisian, C. A., Hays, R. D. & Mangione, C. M. (2002). Do older adults expect to age successfully? The association between expectations regarding aging and beliefs regarding healthcare seeking among older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 50, 1837-1843.

Sarkisian, C. A., Steers, W. N., Hays, R. D. & Mangione, C. M. (2005). Development of the 12-item expectations regarding aging survey. The Gerontologist, 45(2), 240-248.

Comments: Sixty-eight percent of respondents stated that all or most of the ERA-38 addressed things that were important. Having low expectations regarding aging was independently associated with not believing it important to seek health care for age-associated conditions.