Reliability and validity study of the Turkish version of the Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale (SCoRS-TR)

Background

Schizophrenia is characterized by significant dysfunction in cognitive domains. Despite its crucial role in prognosis, evaluating neurocognitive impairments is challenging in outpatient settings because of the time-consuming nature of neurocognitive assessments. SCoRS “Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale” is a scale that provides brief cognitive evaluation. This study aimed to establish the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the “Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale” (SCoRS-TR) in patients with schizophrenia and examine the correlation between SCoRS and cognitive tests.

Methods

Data were collected from 130 patients with schizophrenia who met the DSM-5 criteria and 40 healthy controls. SCoRS rating, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and a neurocognitive test battery were administered.

Results

Findings indicated that SCoRS-TR is a reliable and valid scale for the Turkish population. The scale demonstrated strong internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging from 0.937 to 0.940. High interrater reliability (ranging from 0.90 to 0.98) and test-retest reliability (ranging from 0.976 to 0.990) were observed. SCoRS-TR significantly discriminated patients from healthy controls (p<0.001). SCoRS-TR exhibited significant correlations to neurocognitive tests.

Discussion

Results indicated that SCoRS-TR had significant reliability and validity scores that may be useful for evaluating daily life functioning related to cognitive dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia. This approach may be useful for neurocognitive evaluation and monitoring in clinical follow-up and outpatient settings.