Development and psychometric evaluation of the public health surveillance well-being scale

To develop and psychometrically evaluate the brief Public Health Surveillance Well-Being Scale (PHS-WB) that captures mental,
physical, and social components of well-being.

Using data from 5,399 HealthStyles survey respondents, we conducted bi-factor, item response theory, and differential item
functioning analyses to examine the psychometric properties of a pool of 34 well-being items. Based on the statistical results
and content considerations, we developed a brief 10-item well-being scale and assessed its construct validity through comparisons
of demographic subgroups and correlations with measures of related constructs.

Based on the bi-factor analyses, the items grouped into both an overall factor and individual domain-specific factors. The
PHS-WB scale demonstrated good internal consistency (alpha = 0.87) and correlated highly with scores for the entire item pool
(r = 0.94). The well-being scale scores differed as expected across demographic groups and correlated with global and domain-specific
measures of similar constructs, supporting its construct validity.

The 10-item PHS-WB scale demonstrates good psychometric properties, and its high correlation with the item pool suggests minimal
loss of information with the use of fewer items. The brief PHS-WB allows for well-being assessment on national surveys or
in other situations where a longer form may not be feasible.