Reliability and validity of the Lithuanian version of CASP-19: a quality of life questionnaire for the elderly

Introduction: Ageing is associated with several physical, psychological and behavioral changes. These changes are closely related with general health problems and quality of life in old age. The CASP-19 questionnaire was created to measure quality of life in the elderly, evaluating 4 domains: control, autonomy, self-realization and pleasure. CASP-19 has been used in more than 20 studies and been translated into 16 languages. The objective of our study was to test psychometric properties of the Lithuanian version of the CASP-19 questionnaire. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was performed with ambulatory men and women aged 60 and older, living in a community in Vilnius, Lithuania. Exclusion criteria were: current acute illness, malignant tumor and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score < 15 points. Psychometric properties of CASP-19 were tested using reliability and validity methods. Results: The study sample consisted of 132 participants, 28 (21.8%) of them were men and 103 (78.2%) women. Most of participants were living in an urban area (72.7%) and were well educated (59.8). Analysis of psychometric properties of the Lithuanian version of CASP-19 showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.85), good agreement between test-retest measures with an ICC of 0.82 (95% CI 0.79 – 0.85) and good convergent and divergent construct validity. Conclusions: The psychometric properties indicated that the Lithuanian version of the CASP-19 was reliable and valid. As such, it might be used to evaluate quality of life in elderly people