The study aimed to test the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of Nutritional Form for the Elderly (NUFFE-CHI) to provide tools for elderly malnutrition screening.

The Nutrition Form for the Elderly was translated into Chinese and the research was carried out among 208 old patients ≥60 years old in the First Hospital Affiliated to Liaoning Medical University in Jinzhou. The reliability and validity were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 and AMOS 17.0 software.

The Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.74, the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) of each item were 0.84-0.96 and the scale ICC was 0.96. Item-to-total correlation analysis showed that all of the item-to-total correlations were statistically significant. The item content validity index (I-CVI) were 0.60-1.00, the scale content validity index S-CVI/UA was 0.93 and S-CVI/Ave was 0.93. Five common factors from exploratory factor analysis explained 64.80% of the total variance, and the communalities of the items were 0.460-0.793. Confirmatory factor analysis showed the goodness of fit index (GFI), the comparative fit index (CFI) and the incremental fit index (IFI) were all≥ 0.900, the mean root square error approximation (RMSEA)<0.08, the NUFFE-CHI five-factor model regression coefficients were 0.12-0.82. The best critical point was 13, ≥13 indicated malnutrition, the sensitivity was 59.6%, the specificity was 91.5%, and area under the curve was 0.823.

NUFFE-CHI is a reliable and valid instrument which could be used for elderly malnutrition screening in elderly patients.

Aged; Form; Reliability; Validity