An analysis on the psychometric properties of perceived social support scales in older adults

An important section of health status assessment of older adults is measurement of perceived social support. Choosing a sound scale with good psychometrics properties is a prerequisite for proper assessment. The aim of this review article is to analyze the psychometric properties of perceived social support scales to help researchers to become more familiar with positive and negative aspects of these instruments and select a more valid and appropriate one. Method & Materials: A comprehensive search of databases of Medline, google scholar, and scopus was conducted, using the related keywords to development and psychometrics of perceived social support scales, and the articles published until 2014 were gathered. Psychometric properties including validity, reliability, responsiveness, and interpretability of the selected scales were assessed using the Cosmin comprehensive checklist Most of the scales had not been reported a complete and desirable psychometrics properties. Despite of developing for adult populations, some of them, didn’t have capability for using in older adults (length of scale, length of questions, special questions) The results revealed that despite of the lack of appropriate scale for measurement of perceived social support, the MOS is the only scale which can be recommended to gerontologists until now. But there is a vital need for developing an instrument based on cultural and social characteristics of different societies with acceptable psychometrics properties for measuring perceived social support in older adults.