Psychometric testing of the Chinese Mandarin version of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey in patients with coronary heart disease in mainland China

PURPOSE: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese Mandarin version of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS-CM) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) in mainland China.

METHODS: Measurement performance of the MOS-SSS-CM was tested on a convenience sample of 200 Chinese patients with CHD in a University-affiliated hospital in Xi'an, P. R. China. To establish reliability of the instrument, 40 patients were retested 2 weeks later through telephone interview. The traditional Chinese version of the MOS-SSS was transformed into a simplified Chinese Mandarin version and administered to participants, together with Chinese Mandarin versions of the Short Form-36 item Health Survey (SF-36) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

RESULTS: The MOS-SSS-CM had acceptable internal consistency with Cronbach α coefficients of 0.91 for the overall scale and 0.71-0.84 for the four subscales. The high correlation (r = 0.56-0.87) between items and the remainder of the scale provides further evidence of internal consistency. The test-retest reliability was generally acceptable with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.89 for the overall scale and 0.74-0.88 for the four subscales. There was acceptable concurrent validity with moderate significant correlations (r ≥ 0.3, p < 0.01) between the MOS-SSS-CM and the Chinese Mandarin version of the HADS. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure of the MOS-SSS-CM measuring the self-perceived adequacy of functional support of Chinese patients with CHD.

CONCLUSION: The MOS-SSS-CM is a valid and reliable measure for Chinese Mandarin-speaking patients with CHD.