The Salutogenic Wellness Promotion Scale for Older Adults

Background: From 1990 to 2050, the population aged 60 years and older will rise from 9% to 21%. Healthy aging initiatives are vital to promote individual, community, and global well-being during this transformation. Accurate health measurement tools are needed to successfully guide strategies and plot progress. The validated multi-dimensional Salutogenic Wellness Promotion Scale (SWPS) measures health and has demonstrated that increased engagement in measured health-promoting behaviors relates to improved health, higher life satisfaction, and fewer problems. Methods: To extend existing work to the growing older adult population, an older adult version of the SWPS(-OA), a perceived health assessment, satisfaction with life survey (SWLS), and a depression scale (Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression, CES-D) were pilot tested with 6 groups (N = 218) of older adults. Results: Data produced a Cronbach's alpha of 0.933, significant positive correlations between the SWPS-OA and health (r = 0.955, n = 218...