Psychometric properties of the Cognitive Functioning Self-Assessment Scale in community-dwelling adults: A cross-sectional online survey

BackgroundThe Cognitive Functioning Self-Assessment Scale (CFSS) was developed to allow the self-assessment of perceived cognitive functioning. It has been tested with satisfactory reliability and validity but was not available for the Chinese population. This study aimed to adapt and validate the Chinese version of the CFSS for community-dwelling adults.MethodsA cross-sectional study of a sample of 1,002 Chinese adults from the general population was conducted online (July–August 2022). The Chinese version of the CFSS with 18 items was created through translation, cognitive debriefing, and psychometric evaluation. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the first half of the randomly split sample. A model derived from EFA was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the second half of the sample. The model fits were further evaluated with and without subgrouping by age, gender, and education level. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha (α) and McDonald’s omega hierarchical coefficients (ωH).ResultsEFA (n = 460) revealed a three-factor solution, including spatio-temporal orientation, attention, and memory, which explained 51% of the total variance. The second-order CFA (n = 510) demonstrated a good fit: CFI = 0.951, TLI = 0.944, RMSEA = 0.054, SRMR = 0.040. A second-order multiple-group analysis showed that the structure was invariant by age, gender, and education level. The total CFSS score was significantly associated with the Chinese version of the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (r = 0.56, p