Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Centro de Pesquisa Clínica e Epidemiológica, Hospital Universitário, USP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Braz J Psychiatry. 2021 May-Jun;43(3):254-261. doi: 10.1590/1516-4446-2020-0978.
Longitudinal measurement invariance analyses are an important way to assess a test's ability to estimate the underlying construct over time, ensuring that cognitive scores across visits represent a similar underlying construct, and that changes in test performance are attributable to individual change in cognitive abilities. We aimed to evaluate longitudinal measurement invariance in a large, social and culturally diverse sample over time.
A total of 5,949 participants from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) were included, whose cognition was reassessed after four years. Longitudinal measurement invariance analysis was performed by comparing a nested series of multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis models (for memory and executive function factors).
Configural, metric, scalar and strict invariance were tested and supported over time.
Cognitive temporal changes in this sample are more likely to be due to normal and/or pathological aging. Testing longitudinal measurement invariance is essential for diverse samples at high risk of dementia, such as in low- and middle-income countries.
纵向测量不变性分析是评估测试随时间估计潜在结构能力的重要方法，可确保各次访问的认知分数代表相似的潜在结构，并且测试表现的变化归因于认知能力的个体变化。我们旨在评估随时间推移，在一个大型的、社会和文化多样化的样本中纵向测量不变性。
共纳入 5949 名来自巴西成人健康纵向研究（ELSA-Brasil）的参与者，他们的认知在四年后进行了重新评估。通过比较嵌套的一系列多组验证性因素分析模型（用于记忆和执行功能因素），进行了纵向测量不变性分析。
配置、度量、标度和严格不变性在整个研究期间得到了验证和支持。
该样本中的认知时间变化更可能是由于正常和/或病理性衰老引起的。对于痴呆风险高的多样化样本，例如在中低收入国家，测试纵向测量不变性至关重要。
