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The targeted use of standardized outcome measures (SOMs) of mental health in research with older adults who are incarcerated promotes a common language that enables interdisciplinary dialogue, contributes to the identification of disparities and supports data harmonization and subsequent synthesis. This paper aims to provide researchers with rationale for using “gold-standard” measures used in research with community-dwelling older adults, reporting associated study sample psychometric indexes, and detailing alterations in the approach or measure.

The authors highlight the mental health of older adults who are incarcerated. They also discuss the benefits of SOMs in practice and research and then identify gold-standard measures of mental health used in research with community-dwelling older adults and measures used in research with older adults who are incarcerated. Finally, the authors provide several recommendations related to the use of SOMs of mental health in research with this population.

Depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder are common among older adults who are incarcerated. Researchers have used a variety of measures to capture these mental health problems, some parallel to those used with community-dwelling samples. However, a more targeted use of SOMs of mental health in research with this population will contribute to important strides in this burgeoning field.

This review offers several practical recommendations related to SOMs of mental health in research with older adults who are incarcerated to contribute to a rigorous evidence base and thus inform practice and potentially improve the health and well-being of this population.

Valid and reliable measurement is critical to the assessment and evaluation of health interventions. However, few scholars have examined the psychometric properties of “gold standard” measures in carceral settings, and no research has explored the reliability, validity and factor structure of the 26-item World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) BREF among older adults incarcerated in prison, a large and growing population marked by substantial chronic and life-limiting illness. This study aims to examine the reliability, validity and factor structure of the WHOQOL-BREF.

Secondary data from a large-scale study with older adults (age 45+) incarcerated in a Midwestern state were used (N = 499). Floor and ceiling effects were examined, as was the reliability of the measure (Cronbach's alpha). The structural validity of a four-factor and second-order four-factor model of the WHOQOL-BREF was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Model data fit was examined using chi-square, standardized root mean square residual, comparative fit indices, Akaike information criterion and the Bayesian Information Criterion. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were also used to assess validity.

Results indicate adequate construct validity and reliability for the WHOQOL-BREF using the current sample. Model-data fit indexes also reveal adequate structure of the measure relative to other older adult samples. Non-random data and item exclusion are noteworthy limits, and future researchers are encouraged to co-conceptualize and operationalize life quality with older adults who are incarcerated.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-BREF among older adults incarcerated in prison.

The purpose of this paper aims to examine differences in measures of and relationships between visitation and quality of life (QOL) among older and younger jailed adults. The authors also explored the contribution of visitation to QOL among adults in this setting. The authors anticipated fewer visits and lower QOL among older adults. Framed by psychosocial developmental theory, the authors also anticipated a larger effect in the relationship between visitation and QOL among older rather than younger adults and that visitation would contribute most readily to psychological QOL.

Cross-sectional data from a large US jail were used (n = 264). The authors described the sample regarding visitation and QOL measures among older (≥45) and younger adults (≤44) and examined differences in measures of and relationships between visitation and QOL using independent sample t-tests and bivariate analyses. The authors explored the contribution of visitation to psychological, social relationships, physical and environmental QOL among jailed adults using hierarchical multiple linear regression.

Older adults had fewer family visits and lower physical QOL than younger adults, disparities were moderate in effect (d range = 0.33–0.35). A significant difference also emerged between groups regarding the visitation and environmental QOL relationship (z = 1.66, p <0.05). Visitation contributed to variation in physical and social relationships QOL among jailed adults (Beta range = 0.19–0.24).

Limited research exists among jailed older adults and scholars have yet to examine the relationship between visitation and QOL among persons in these settings.