To evaluate the measurement performance of social support scale in Chinese elderly population.

The research on the measurement performance of the social support scale in the elderly population in China was retrieved on China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) , VIP, WanFang Data, China Biology Medicine disc, PubMed, Embase and Web of Science. The retrieval time limit was from the establishment of the database to August 1, 2022. Based on the guideline of Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) , the measurement performance of the scale and the methodological quality of the study were evaluated, and the evaluation results were summarized and analyzed.

A total of 17 studies were included, involving 11 social support scales. As far as the measurement performance of the scale was concerned, the existing scale generally lacked sufficient content validity, and was different in terms of structure validity, internal consistency, stability and hypothesis testing of structural validity, all of which failed to reach the recommended strength of category A.

The Medical Outcomes Social Support Survey, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and the Structural-functional Social Support Scale can all be applied to the elderly population in China, but their measurement performance should be further tested under the premise of standardizing the research methodology.

Aged; Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments; Social support scale; Measurement performance