The Chinese version of the self-efficacy scale for daily life activities among older adults: translation, validity and reliability

•Translate SSDLAOA into Chinese and localize its adaptation to assess its validity and reliability among older adults in the Chinese community.•The C-SSDLAOA is a valid and reliable tool for assessing self-efficacy for the daily life activities of older adults.•The C-SSDLAOA measures five dimensions of self-efficacy for the daily life activities of older adults. To translate and cross-culturally adapt the Self-efficacy Scale for Daily Life Activities among Older Adults (SSDLAOA) into Chinese, as well as to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the SSDLAOA (C-SSDLAOA) in a Chinese community-based older adult population. This study used a cross-sectional survey. The psychometric properties of the C-SSDLAOA were evaluated among 355 older adults recruited from three communities in Huzhou, including internal reliability, test-retest reliability, face validity, content validity, construct validity, and concurrent validity. The C-SSDLAOA was consistent with the original version, which consisted of five dimensions and 23 items. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit for each indicator (χ2 /df=1.387, RMSEA = 0.043, CFI = 0.967, TLI = 0.962, and SRMR = 0.042). The Cronbach's alpha was 0.909, and the test-retest reliability was 0.966, with good internal consistency and stability. The content validity index of the items ranged from 0.83 to 1.00, while the content validity index of the scale was 0.96. The correlation between the C-SSDLAOA and GSES was 0.886, with good concurrent validity. The C-SSDLAOA is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing self-efficacy for daily life activities in Chinese community-dwelling older adults.