Cross-cultural adaptation and preliminary psychometric evaluation of the digitalisation anxiety scale among Chinese older adults

To translate, cross-culturally adapt, and preliminarily evaluate the psychometric properties of the Digitalisation Anxiety Scale (DAS) in a sample of Chinese older adults. The DAS was translated, back-translated, culturally adapted, and pilot-tested following the Brislin translation model. A convenience sample of 401 community-dwelling older adults was recruited from Wuhan, China. We evaluated internal consistency, test-retest reliability, content validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using the weighted least squares mean- and variance-adjusted (WLSMV) estimator was conducted as the primary structural-validity analysis, with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) performed as a supplementary sensitivity analysis. The item-level content validity indices ranged from 0.857 to 1.000, and the scale-level content validity index was 0.984. For the total scale, Cronbach’s α was 0.939, and McDonald’s ω was 0.934. The single-measure test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.844 (95% CI: 0.697–0.922). The DAS total score was moderately correlated with the Chinese version of the Technophobia Scale (C-TS) total score ( r = 0.634, P < 0.001). The correlated four-factor model showed good fit: chi-square statistic ( χ² ) = 652.99, degrees of freedom ( df ) = 554, chi-square-to-degrees-of-freedom ratio ( χ²/df ) = 1.179, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.964, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.962, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.038 (90% CI: 0.030–0.045), and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.040. Standardized factor loadings ranged from 0.695 to 0.846. Composite reliability ranged from 0.888 to 0.951, and average variance extracted ranged from 0.558 to 0.614. The supplementary exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported a four-factor solution explaining 57.3% of the total variance. The Chinese version of the DAS demonstrated satisfactory preliminary psychometric properties and supported the proposed four-factor structure in this urban community-dwelling sample. It may be useful as a self-report measure for describing digitalisation anxiety and identifying potential domains of concern, although further independent validation in diverse samples and refinement of workplace-oriented items are needed.