The Old Old Using Exercise and Activity scales for assessing the health of the 75+ John Stevens and Peter Baume Abstract Though the proportion of the Australian population which has entered retirement is steadily increasing, little research has investigated social factors affecting health among the oldest strata of the population. This poster details work in progress creating both exercise and activity scales to predict an older person’s health. Introduction Prior to retirement It has long been acknowledged that the Socio- Economic Status (SES) of a respondent, based on the head of household’s occupation, is a weak predictor of the respondent’s health. This correlation is less strong after retirement with a Cronbach alpha value of against before retirement. To improve on this value this project aims to create new scales to predict the self-assessed health of respondents aged 75+. Initially, we created an exercise scale, which we are expanding into an activity scale that include such activities as gardening, physically active housework and shopping. The Kensington 75+ Exercise Scale This scale records the level of exercise that over 75-year-olds undertake. The scale coverers a range from 1 to 5 (5 implying vigorous exercises). The following table show what each scale point represents. Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) compute exercise=2. Do if agh3h=1 & agh3e=1. compute exercise=1. Else if agh3a =3. compute exercise=5. Else if agh3g = 3 or agh3b = 3. compute exercise=4. Else if agh3g = 2 or agh3b = 2. compute exercise=3. Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA) compute exercise=3. Do if wlkhlfml=2 & strs2flr=2. compute exercise=1. Else if (strs2flr=2 & wlkhlfml=1) or (strs2flr=1 & wlkhlfml=2). compute exercise=2. Else if vigexcs =1. compute exercise=5. Else if aap23 = 4 or lsvigexc = 1. compute exercise=4. Else if aap23 = 3. compute exercise=3. British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) compute exercise=3. Do if kadla=3 and kadlf=3. compute exercise=1. Else if kadla=2. compute exercise=2. Else if kadlfd = 3. compute exercise=3. Else if kadlfd = 2. compute exercise=4. Else if kadlfd = 1. compute exercise=5. About the authors John Stevens is a research officer at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW and a PhD student. Peter Baume, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW is a retired medical doctor, academic and member of parliament. He is currently the Chancellor of the Australian National University Testing the exercise scale The developed scale can be used as a predictor of respondents’ self- assessment of their own health using the standard five point scale health scale. The results of Cronbach’s alpha comparing the new scale with the five point health scale are shown in the following table. To summarise, the amount of exercise a respondent does is a good predictor of self-assessed health. There is a sex bias in the scale, as more older men than women doing in exercise, and men perceiving themselves more healthy. The Kensington 75+ Activity Scale The Kensington Activity scale which is in development will include activities such as gardening, physically active housework, walking while shopping, and perhaps others activities in addition to the items presently included in the exercise scale. We hope to reduce the sex bias by adding these items to the exercise scale. On initial investigation, we are finding problems with the quality and design of the social questions in the data sets examined. Surprisingly, some health surveys do not ask any social questions; likewise, some social science surveys do no ask simple health questions such as SF-36. Summary The amount of exercise a respondent does is a good predictor of self- assessed health. The next phases of the project is the development of an activity scale which will hopefully improve the reliability of the scale. A further option would be to use the multi-dimensional scaling method trisoscal so that older people can create a scale for themselves by sorting triads. Technical information The following SPSS syntax was used to calculate the Kensington 75+ Exercise Scale for the following data sets ValuePoint represents 1cannot walk 0.5 k and up a flight of stairs 2cannot walk 0.5 k or up a flight of stairs 3can walk a kilometre in a week 4does less vigorous exercise 5does more vigorous exercise