Development of Bharatiya geriatric loneliness scale

The primary focus of the study was to develop a scale that measures geriatric loneliness and to assess its reliability and validity. This study was a collaborative effort, drawing on the expertise of researchers from various disciplines. Following the item writing and item selection via expert review, the finalised set was administered to a sample of 170 individuals aged 60 and above to evaluate the scale's reliability. The collected data was scored, and the analysis was performed using SPSS. The reliability was assessed using Cronbach's Alpha, and the reliability coefficient was 0.73, indicating that the test has good reliability. The value of KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) was .70. Bartlett's test of sphericity (x² = 1642.17, p <.001) indicated that correlations between items were sufficiently significant to perform EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis). Eigen values e” 1 were considered. After the EFA, four factors were considered: social support, communication, social media, and social touch, each comprising a total of 11 questions. This scale will help future researchers, clinical psychologists and counsellors to assess loneliness in geriatrics.