Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong, 2/F, The HKJC Building for Interdisciplinary Research, 5 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Sep 10;21(1):1653. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11691-y.
The Urbanicity Scale was developed based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to measure the urbanization index of communities according to 12 components. The present study was designed to systematically investigate the factorial validity, reliability, and longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) of the Urbanicity Scale.
Six waves of CHNS data from 2000 to 2015 were adopted. The factor structure and reliability of the Urbanicity Scale for 301 communities were examined using Bayesian exploratory factor analysis. Metric and scalar LMIs were evaluated using both the conventional exact and a novel approximate LMI approach via Bayesian structural equation modeling across various timeframes.
The findings verified the one-factor structure for the Urbanicity Scale, with adequate reliability. LMI was established for the Urbanicity Scale only over a shorter timeframe from 2006 to 2009 but not over a longer timeframe from 2000 to 2015. Partial LMI was found in the factor loadings and item intercepts for the Urbanicity Scale over the 2004 to 2011 period.
Interpretation of the temporal change in urbanicity was supported only for a shorter (2006 to 2009) but not a longer timeframe (2000 to 2015). Adjustments addressing the partial non-invariance of the measurement parameters are needed for the analysis of temporal changes in urbanicity between 2004 and 2011.
城市化量表是根据中国健康与营养调查（CHNS）开发的，用于根据 12 个组成部分衡量社区的城市化指数。本研究旨在系统地调查城市化量表的因子有效性、可靠性和纵向测量不变性（LMI）。
采用 2000 年至 2015 年的六次 CHNS 数据。采用贝叶斯探索性因子分析对 301 个社区的城市化量表的因子结构和可靠性进行检验。使用传统的精确和新的近似 LMI 方法通过贝叶斯结构方程建模，在不同的时间框架内评估度量和标度 LMI。
研究结果验证了城市化量表的单因素结构，具有足够的可靠性。仅在较短的时间框架（2006 年至 2009 年）内建立了城市化量表的 LMI，但在较长的时间框架（2000 年至 2015 年）内没有建立。城市化量表的因子负荷和项目截距在 2004 年至 2011 年期间存在部分 LMI。
仅对较短的（2006 年至 2009 年）而不是较长的时间框架（2000 年至 2015 年）的城市化变化进行解释。在 2004 年至 2011 年期间分析城市化的时间变化时，需要对测量参数的部分非不变性进行调整。
