Psychometric validation and refinement of the Chinese Interoceptive Accuracy Scale (IAS) in general population and patients with chronic pain

Objective: Interoception plays an important role in psychological functioning and mental and physical health. Recent studies have highlighted the need to distinguish between different aspects of interoception in self-report measures, including subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention. However, there is currently no questionnaire available in Chinese to measure either of these aspects, especially in patients with chronic pain conditions. This paper presents a Chinese translation of the Interoceptive Accuracy Scale (IAS; Murphy et al., 2020).

Methods: In three studies (N = 1166), we examined the factor structure and improved dimensionality of the Chinese IAS using factor analysis and item response theory models, compared its criterion validity in respondents with and without chronic pain, and examined its construct (convergent and discriminant) validity using network analysis approach.

Results: We demonstrated that the Chinese IAS is essentially unidimensional and developed a refined short form (IAS-SF) with improved unidimensionality. Both the Chinese IAS and IAS-SF showed comparable criterion validity in respondents with and without chronic pain, and both showed acceptable construct validity.

Conclusion: Overall, the Chinese IAS and Chinese IAS-SF will be useful tools for researchers and clinicians interested in interoceptive processes in Chinese populations or cross-cultural settings, especially in pain research.