[Psychometric analysis of the prefrontal symptom inventory abbreviated: evidence of its validity and reliability in the general Venezuelan population].

Abstract

Introduction: Few tools exist to objectively measure dysfunctions of prefrontal origin self-reported by the general population. The Prefrontal Symptom Inventory (PSI) is a test with excellent psychometric properties that allows such assessment and so far, no robust analysis of its abbreviated version in Spanish for Latin America has been performed.

Aims: To analyze the psychometric properties of the abbreviated PSI in terms of reliability and validity in the general population in the Venezuelan context.

Subjects and methods: 300 subjects from the general population participated. The factor structure of the abbreviated ISP was determined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); construct validity was assessed by contrasting groups with no risk of MCI and the convergence of scores with the domains that make up the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Likewise, internal consistency was estimated through McDonald's ? and Cronbach's a.

Results: Five factorial models were contrasted and a version of the PSI composed of 18 items was obtained, which presented excellent indicators of goodness of fit (?2 (132) = 200.057, p < 0.001, CFI=0.955, TLI=0.948, SRMR=0.042, RMSEA=0.041) and internal consistency (? = 0.90; a = 0.89). Likewise, statistically significant differences between groups and inverse correlations were evidenced with the sections evaluated in the MoCA except for abstraction.

Conclusion: The PSI-18 is a valid and reliable measure to be used in the studied population. Consistently, previous studies show its versatility to be used in research and health contexts.