Evidence of validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the “Observable Social Cognition: A Rating Scale” (OSCARS) in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

Introduction. Social Cognition (SC) impairment is part of the deficit syndrome of schizophrenia. The Observable Social Cognition: A Rating Scale (OSCARS) evaluates the perceived SC through an external reference informant. The aim of this paper is to analyze the psychometric properties of validity and reliability of its cross-cultural adaptation for the Spanish population.

Methods. Observational and cross-sectional study in a sample of outpatients with schizophrenia (n = 109), selected by simple randomized sampling. Selected instruments: Hinting task, MATRICS cognitive consensus battery, clinical global impression scale (CGI-SCH) and specific data collection logbook.

Results. Exploratory Factor Analysis identified a twofactor model, like the original version, that explains 59.02% of the total variance: social cognitive bias and social cognitive ability. As in the original version, no correlation results were found with other SC measures: Hinting task (r: - 0.085; p value = 0.382) or MSCEIT of the MATRICS (r: 0.015; p value 0.877). No specific correlations were observed with other neurocognitive domains. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.82 (0.75 and 0.76, for each factor). The mean weighted kappa value was 0.43. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient score, 0.84 (95% CI: 0.76 - 0.88; p <0.001).

Conclusions. These findings support the validity and the reliability of the cross-cultural adaptation of the OSCARS a tool to assess SC by a referent informant in individuals with schizophrenia with similar psychometric properties to the original version.