Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Chinese version of the Malnutrition Awareness Scale among community-dwelling older adults.

Objective: To translate, cross-culturally adapt, and validate the Malnutrition Awareness Scale (MAS) among Chinese community-dwelling older adults.

Methods: This study consists of two parts. First, we developed the Chinese version of the MAS (C-MAS) through direct translation, back translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and pilot testing. Then, we selected 380 community-dwelling older adults from two community healthcare centers in Zhengzhou from May to July 2024 for a questionnaire survey to assess the scale's reliability and validity, including internal reliability, test-retest reliability, split-half reliability, content validity, and construct validity.

Results: The C-MAS included 4 dimensions and 23 items. At the scale level, the content validity index (S-CVI) was 0.91; at the item level, the content validity ranged from 0.86 to 1.00. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) extracted four common factors with factor loads of 0.646 to 0.893 for each item, and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 71.418%. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated a satisfactory fit for each indicator. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for this scale was 0.908, with test-retest reliability of 0.952 and split-half reliability of 0.738.

Conclusions: The reliability and validity of C-MAS are up to standard and can be used to assess malnutrition awareness among Chinese community-dwelling older adults.