Reliability and Validity of Persian Version of the Rating Anxiety in Dementia Questionnaire

 Due to the importance of anxiety and its common symptoms with other physical and mental diseases in elderly patients, valid screening measures are needed. Based on this need, the present study attempted to assess the reliability and validity of the Persian version of the Rating Anxiety in Dementia (RAID).

 This research was a cross-sectional study on the development and localization of instruments, conducted on 209 patients with dementia referring to psychiatry clinics of the elderly in Isfahan, Iran, with the convenience sampling method. The procedures for RAID localizations were translated and back-translated in 2021 using central and distributive tendencies and inferential statistical methods, internal consistency of the scale and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were tested. To conduct the statistical calculations, SPSS software was used.

 209 participants with a mean age of 52.6 ± 13.3 were selected. Seventy-eight participants were men (37.3%), and 126 were women (60.3%). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found to be 0.89. Based on the varimax rotation, in the five-factor model (according to principal component analysis, irritability, tension, anxiety, worry, weakness), questions 2 and 11 were removed for weak factor loading, and eigenvalue was explained by 66.2% variance. The convergent validity between Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scale and RAID was positive (r = 0.25, P = 0.002).

 The findings confirmed the validity and reliability of the Iranian version of RAID as an appropriate instrument for screening anxiety in elderly patients with dementia.