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

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.

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).

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.

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