Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Chinese version of the loneliness scale for older adults

Loneliness is emerging as a public health problem. Due to the social and emotional attributes of loneliness, there is a lack of multidimensional-related research and an effective scale with which to evaluate the loneliness of older adults in China. We intend to translate and psychometrically validate the Chinese version of the loneliness scale for older adults (C-LSOA). A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 415 older adults in Huzhou, China. Content validity, construct validity, concurrent validity, and reliability were used to assess the scale's psychometric properties. Exploratory factor analysis of the C-LSOA extracted five common factors, and confirmatory factor analysis fit well. The model fit parameter values were X2/df = 2.060, CFI = 0.912, TLI = 0.902, RMSEA = 0.064, and SRMR = 0.060. The scale's content validity index was 0.93. The Cronbach's α for the total scale was 0.868, and the test-retest result was 0.854. The correlation between the C-LSOA and UCLA was 0.886, with good concurrent validity. The results indicated that the C-LSOA could be used to measure the loneliness of older adults in Chinese communities.