Objective To translate the Fear of Dementia Scale （FODS）, and to test its reliability and validity in community-dwelling older adults. Methods The English version of FODS was translated into Chinese according to the Brislin translation model, and cultural adjustment was conducted through expert consultation and preliminary experiment, then 230 community-dwelling older adults were selected conveniently and investigated using the Chinese version of FODS, so as to test its reliability and validity. Results The Chinese version of FODS included three dimensions: cognition, society and physical, which was consisted of experience and cognition of dementia（7 items）, concerns about family burden（4 items）, shame（3 items） and physical response（4 items） four factors, with a total of 18 items. The content validity index of the scale was 0.934, and the content validity index of each item was 0.857 to 1.000. Four common factors were extracted by exploratory factor analysis, with a cumulative contribution rate of 77.464%. The Cronbach′s α coefficient of the scale was 0.893, and its retest reliability coefficient was 0.854. Conclusion The reliability and validity of the Chinese version FODS in community-dwelling older adults is good, which can be used to identify and assess the fear of dementia in the elderly.