Dimensional structure of the Brazilian version of the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ-BR)

This study aimed to assess the dimensional structure and internal consistency of the Brazilian version of the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ-BR) for measurement of functional capacity in the elderly, based on the informant's report. This was a cross-sectional study with 525 non-institutionalized elderly informants, in which confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and exploratory/confirmatory factor analyses (E/CFA) modeled according to CFA principles were used to identify the most parsimonious model and that with the best fit. The internal consistency of the FAQ-BR was assessed by composite reliability, and correlations between its dimensions were examined to investigate discriminant factor validity. CFA did not corroborate the unidimensional structure as originally proposed. Next, E/CFA fit a bidimensional structure that was reassessed by CFA, displaying a model without cross loads as the most parsimonious and with adequate fit indices. The internal consistency of FAQ-BR was considered satisfactory, and the correlation between its dimensions was acceptable. These findings are important, since they demonstrate the scale's capacity to capture the elderly's functional capacity construct in a different sociocultural context from that in which it was originally developed. The FAQ-BR can thus be considered an appropriate bidimensional instrument for measuring the elderly's functional capacity based on the informant's report, and its use in studies with similar populations is recommended.