Reliability of the Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile-Screener (HELP-Screener).

This study examined reliability of the Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile-Screener (HELP-Screener), a 15-item self-report questionnaire serving as an initial screening of lifestyle behaviors for older adults. The internal consistency of HELP-Screener was analyzed using data derived from a sample of 483 older adults. The resultant Cronbach's α coefficient of .74 indicated an acceptable level of internal consistency. The test-retest reliability study with 90 participants yielded an intraclass correlation coefficient of .93, indicating a high degree of temporal stability of the instrument at the scale level. Moreover, good to excellent degrees of agreement found through the κ statistic (k(s) = .76-.96) and percentage of agreement (96%-99%) between the test and retest scores of each item further supported HELP-Screener's test-retest reliability at the item level. Future studies should determine other aspects of psychometric properties and clinical suitability of this new instrument.