Translation and validation of the Chinese ABCD risk questionnaire to evaluate adults’ awareness and knowledge of the risks of cardiovascular diseases

BACKGROUND: Assessment of health beliefs and risk perception is a critical means to prevent coronary heart disease, but there are few such studies on assessment in the Chinese population. Given the demonstrated value and widespread use of the Attitudes and Beliefs about Cardiovascular Disease Risk Questionnaire (ABCD), this study was designed to translate it into Chinese, and to evaluate its reliability and validity in a Chinese population. METHODS: The Chinese version of the ABCD was created using the Beaton translation model, which included forward and backward translation. The reliability and construct validity of the Chinese ABCD were examined in a sample of 353 adults who participated in the public welfare projects of the Chinese National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases in Guilin city, Guangxi. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to examine the factor structure of the Chinse ABCD. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach’s α and corrected item-total correlations. RESULTS: We deleted item 7 in the knowledge dimension of the Chinese ABCD and added two items about smoking and sleep knowledge, while retaining 25 of the original items, so that it finally included 27 items. The correlations were .20–.90; the correlations between each item and the total score of the ABCD were .34–.86; and the item-level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) was .86–1.00. The results of the EFA showed that all items were close to .40, and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 63.88%. The model fit was acceptable (χ(2) = 698.79, df = 243, χ(2)/df = 2.87, P < 0.001, SRMR = 0.06, RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.96, and TLI = 0.94) according to the CFA. The Cronbach’ s α of the entire questionnaire was .86, and the α of each of dimension was .65, .90, .88, and .78. The split-half reliability of the entire the ABCD was .67, and the test-retest reliability was .97 (P < 0.05). The questionnaire had good reliability and validity and was associated with sociodemographic and health-related characteristics (smoking and Body Mass Index). CONCLUSION: The Chinese version of the ABCD has good reliability and validity, and provides a reliable assessment tool for measuring public health beliefs about the risk of cardiovascular disease, promoting the primary prevention of coronary heart disease. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-14101-z.