Norm of the Sub-health Measurement Scale for the elderly in Tianjin city: an empirical survey

  Objective  To establish a norm of Sub-Health Measurement Scale (SHMS V1.0) for the elderly in Tianjin municipality.

  Methods  Using stratified random sampling, we conducted a voluntary survey with SHMS V1.0 among 1 800 residents aged 60 years and above in three administrative districts of Tianjin municipality during March – May 2018. Gender- and age-specific norms for mean, percentile and cut-off scores of SHMS V1.0 were estimated based on analyses on the data collected.

  Results  For the male and female participants aged 60 – 69, 70 – 79, ≥ 80 years, the mean general scores (GS) of SHMS V1.0 were 66.95 ± 12.45 and 64.89 ± 11.45, 63.63 ± 13.06 and 61.09 ± 14.80, 57.09 ± 13.28 and 56.86 ± 9.31, respectively. The interval of percentile norm was 5%. Using normal distribution approach and adopting 0.5 standard deviation as the interval, the cut-off scores for illness, severe/moderate/mild sub-health, and health were estimated with the score range of \bar x \pm s.

  Conclusion  The study estimates the norm for the SHMS V1.0 scores among community elderly in Tianjin city, which could be used as references in researches on sub-health in elderly populations.