The Psychometric Features of the Turkish Version of the Ageism Survey and the Frequency of Ageism

• Main Authors: Saime Erol, Ayse Ergun, Hasibe Kadıoglu, Kamer Gur, Sevil Albayrak, Fatma Nevin Şişman, Ayse Sezer, Nurcan Kolac
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taiwan Society of Geriatric Emergency and Critical Medicine (TSGECM) 2016-09-01
• Series: International Journal of Gerontology
• Subjects: ageism; instrument; prevalence; reliability; validity
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1873959816300618

Background: This study was conducted to adapt the ageism survey to the Turkish language and culture and to determine the frequency of occurrence of ageism. Methods: The study population consisted of 236 individuals aged 50–95 years. The cultural adaptation of the ageism survey was carried out through the method of translation/back-translation and the validity of the instrument was tested for content and construct validity; its reliability was tested by internal consistency analysis. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 64.44 ± 9.57. The content validity index for the ageism survey was found to be 0.89 and Cronbach α value was 0.86. Item-total correlation values for all of the items were over 0.31. Of the participants, 82.5% reported being confronted with some kind of discriminatory behavior at least once. Conclusion: It was established that the ageism survey is appropriate to the Turkish language and culture and that it is a valid and reliable instrument.