Psychometric properties of the self-healing assessment scale for community-dwelling older adults

Self-healing, an intrinsic healing capacity, helps individuals’ bodies and minds to regain wholeness and is significant in the pursuit of one’s own healthy ageing and independence. This study was intended to develop and preliminarily test the reliability and validity of the self-healing assessment scale (SHAS) for community-dwelling older adults, and was conducted in three phases. Phase 1: The definitions of self-healing were synthesized from our knowledge of the literature regarding the ontology of self-healing and panels of 25 experts. The initial version of the 12-item questionnaire was developed by the in-depth interviews of focus groups and panels, and the content was validated by six experts. Phase 2: A cross-sectional survey, including a total of 500 community-dwelling older adults with a mean age of 71.76, was then conducted for the preliminary reliability and validity test. The content validity indices were satisfied. Twelve items were retained, and three factors were identified, namely, physical and mental state, socioeconomic and environmental status, and independent lifestyle, which explained 65.8% of the variance under explorative approval. Phase 3: the standardized factor above 60 obtained by confirmatory factorial analysis indicated good convergent validity. The relationship between self-healing and health-related quality of life was confirmed via concurrent validity testing. The SHAS can facilitate the evaluation of factors associated with community-dwelling older adults’ self-healing capacity. Programs tailored to enhance self-healing capacity should be designed, implemented, and inspected regarding their effectiveness in older adults.