Psychometric Evaluation of the WHO Ageism Experiences Scale Among Older Adults in Four Colombian Cities

As a key pillar of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing framework, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners are leading a Global Campaign to Combat Ageism. In response to reviews that identified a lack of suitable measures, the WHO Ageism Experiences Scale (WHO-Ageism-E15) was developed to more effectively assess individuals’ experiences of ageism. This scale is designed to capture the major dimensions of ageism recognised within contemporary theory (i.e., stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination) and to be suitable for individuals of ranging from adolescence up and from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, thus far the scale has primarily been used only in European contexts, leaving a need to assess its performance in more diverse country contexts. This study provides the first translation of the WHO-Ageism-E15 into Spanish using gold standard methods and assesses the validity and reliability of its scores in older populations in four Colombian cities. Overall, the WHO-Ageism-E15 demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in the Colombian context. Older adults in Colombia reported experiencing moderate levels of ageism, with institutional-directed ageism being the most prominent. Furthermore, we found that self-directed and interpersonal-directed ageism were associated with poorer health and psychosocial wellbeing outcomes (i.e., overall ageism experiences were linked to higher levels of loneliness, lower well-being, and poorer physical and psychological health). The results also suggested that income and education levels were linked to experiences of self-directed and interpersonal-directed ageism.