Validation and Reliability Study of the Turkish Version of the Social Health Scale for the Elderly

health; thus, they should be followed up carefully, their risk factors should be clearly identified, and priority should be given to inclusive health and social services aimed at eliminating these risk factors (3-5).As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), "health not only is the absence of a disease or disability but also is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing" (6).On the other hand, in the elderly population, the concept of complete well-being differs.Many older adults with few chronic diseases can consider themselves healthy enough.However, under normal conditions, high cognitive and physical functionality means that the level of active social participation is high (7).Therefore, if the health status of the elderly is to AbstractObjective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Social Health Scale for The Elderly (SHSE) scale. Materials and Methods:This methodological study was conducted with aged 60 years living in two urban and semi-urban neighborhoods in Balikesir between September 2020 and November 2020 by holding face-to-face interviews.The data of the study were collected using the SHSE, multidimensional scale of perceived social support, EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) quality of life questionnaire, and WHO-5 Well-Being Index.In the analysis, in addition to descriptive findings, Cronbach's alpha value and confirmatory factor analysis were performed using SPSS 25.0, jasp 0.14, and lisrel 9.1.Results: Cronbach's alpha values for the overall SHSE and its perceived environmental resource (PER), social adjustment (SA), and social support (SS) subdimensions were 0.89, 0.95, 0.63, and 0.54, respectively.The confirmatory factor analysis summary goodness of fit values of the scale were 0.067 for the root mean square error of approximation, 0.968 for the comparative fit index, and 0.087 for the standardized root mean square residual.The test-retest correlation coefficient of the scale was 0.99 for the overall SHSE and 1.00, 1.00, and 0.95 for its PER, SA, and SS subdimensions, respectively. Conclusion:The SHSE used in this study is a valid and reliable scale for Turkish society.It contains psychometric features that can be used in the assessment of the social health of the elderly.The SHSE can be used not only to investigate the risks or protective factors of social health but also to comprehensively assess health status in conjunction with other health domains.