Health related quality of life in older Mexican Americans with diabetes: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The older Hispanic population of the U.S. is growing at a tremendous rate. While ethnic-related risk and complications of diabetes are widely-acknowledged for older Hispanics, less is known about how health related quality of life is affected in this population. METHODS: Cross-sectional study assessing differences in health related quality of life between older Mexican Americans with and without diabetes. Participants (n = 619) from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly were interviewed in their homes. The primary measure was the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36). RESULTS: The sample was 59.6% female with a mean age of 78.3 (SD = 5.2) years. 31.2% (n = 193) of the participants were identified with diabetes. Individuals with diabetes had significantly (F = 19.35, p < .001) lower scores on the Physical Composite scale (mean = 37.50, SD = 12.69) of the SF-36 compared to persons without diabetes (mean = 43.04, SD = 12.22). There was no significant difference between persons with and without diabetes on the Mental Composite scale of the SF-36. CONCLUSION: Diabetes was associated with lower health related quality of life in older Mexican Americans. The physical components of health related quality of life uniformly differentiated those with diabetes from those without, whereas mental component scores were equivocal.

Reliability and validity of the SF-36 among older Mexican Americans.

PURPOSE: The Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) has been validated in many diverse samples. This measure of health-related quality of life, however, has not yet been examined among older Mexican Americans, a rapidly growing subset of the older population. DESIGN AND METHODS: We address the validity of the SF-36 in a sample of older Mexican Americans (N = 621) selected from the Hispanic Established Populations for Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly. Using confirmatory factor analysis through structural equation modeling, we evaluate the construct validity of this scale. RESULTS: The results indicate evidence for a model with eight first-order factors consistent with previous research on the SF-36 and two second-order factors representing mental and physical health. IMPLICATIONS: This, in addition to other evidence given here, leads us to the conclusion that the SF-36 is a valid measure of health-related quality of life in this sample of older Mexican Americans.