Reference values and the psychometric properties of the Life-Space Assessment in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Project Summary

The Life-Space Assessment (LSA) is a questionnaire that measures everyday mobility. It assesses the ability of a person to safely maneuver themselves within their immediate and surrounding life-spaces (places one visits in daily life). It asks questions about the different areas one visited in the past four weeks (bedroom to beyond their town), the frequency of those visits, and if help was needed. This study plans to assess the ability of the LSA to accurately measure life-space mobility in Canadian adults aged 45 to 84 years old. The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) dataset will be used. To assess its validity, the LSA will be compared with other measures from the CLSA that are relevant to mobility. The ability of the LSA to measure change in mobility over time, and predict negative health outcomes (e.g., hospitalization) will also be assessed.