Reliability and validity of the Cantonese version of the Test of Everyday Attention among normal Hong Kong Chinese: a preliminary report

Objective: To validate the translated Cantonese version of an ecologically valid clinical test of attention – the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA). Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 49 healthy participants with a mean age of 25.9 years in the Hong Kong Chinese setting. Outcome measures: These included the Color Trails Test, Stroop Colour-Word Test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Word Fluency Test, Design Fluency Test, Digits Backward Span Test and Modified Six Elements Test. In addition, the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire and Dysexecutive Questionnaires were also administered to the participants. Results: The TEA was found to have a good range of test–retest reliability. The convergent validity of the instrument was established by correlation of the TEA with various measurements of attention, whereas the divergent validity was demonstrated by the insignificant correlation with tests of other cognitive functioning. Factor analysis of the TEA subtests replicated the major factor structure of the original version. Conclusion: The present study indicates that the translated TEA represents a culturally appropriate tool for measuring everyday life attention performance among the healthy Hong Kong Chinese.