Purpose: The goal of this study was to present the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the short-form National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25) in older adults with age-related ocular disorders.
Methods: The NEI-VFQ-25 was translated and adapted into the Chinese version and then was administered to a sample of 167 older adults with age-related visual problems. All participants were also administered with a Medical Outcomes study 12-item Short-Form Health Survey, and received a detailed eye examination by an ophthalmologist. The sample was divided into two groups--a group with mild visual problems, and a moderately or severely visually impaired group--based on visual acuity in the better eye. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were examined by both traditional validation methods and Rasch analysis.
Results: Results of traditional validation analyses showed that the Chinese version of NEI-VFQ-25 obtained satisfactory validity and reliability, and was able to discriminate among older adults with different severities of visual impairment. Cronbach alpha coefficients for multi-item subscales were all above 0.70 for the whole sample. Results of Rasch analysis revealed significant misfits of some items to the Rasch model.
Conclusions: These results suggest that both the conventional psychometric properties and potential weakness of the Chinese version of NEI-VFQ-25 are similar to those of the English version. The significant limitations of the questionnaire may limit the application of the whole questionnaire in the future.