Centre for Policy on Ageing



The measurement of mood states in older adults
Author(s)	Stephen J Gibson
Journal title	The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological sciences and social sciences, vol 52B, no 4, July 1997
Pages	pp P167-P174
Keywords	Personality ; Emotions ; Cognitive impairment ; Evaluation ; Australia.
Annotation	This Australian study examined the reliability and validity of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire when administered to 479 community-dwelling older adults. Factor analysis replicated the original factor structure identified in young adult samples, suggesting that older adults adopt the same underlying constructs of mood when responding to the POMS. There was a strong support for concurrent validity, and this instrument was able to discriminate between healthy adults and patients with known mood disturbance. Excellent internal consistency of POMS sub-scales and very good retest reliability were noted. A significant age-related decline in self-reported mood states emphasises the need for age-specific norms, although response bias rather than age itself was shown to account for this decline. Overall, the POMS can be recommended as a reliable and valid measure of mood states in older adults, although it is clear that normative values for this test vary considerably over the age spectrum. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-971125270 A
Classmark	DK: DL: E4: 4C: 7YA
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.