A Psychometric Examination of Persian Self-Care Activities Screening Scale (SASS-14) during COVID-19

Abstract Introduction: Self-care is an important and valuable principle in today's society due to its emphasis on the active role of individuals in maintaining their health. This study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Self-Care Activities Screening Scale (SASS-14) during COVID-19.Methods: After obtaining the written permission, SASS-14 was translated into Persian from the original English version. A convenient sampling of 400 Iranian people from March to November 2021 completed the online Persian questionnaire through social media. The construct validity evaluated via Explanatory Factor Analyses (EFA) and confirmed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The convergent validity was evaluated using Spearman correlation coefficients between the SASS-14 and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) and 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). It’s reliability was assessed through internal consistency and test-retest intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Results: The results of the present study showed that the Persian version of the scale (SASS-14) has the desired content and construct validity for use in Iranian society as the original scale. All items of the questionnaire obtained CVR scores greater than 0.62 and only two items were revised for CVI value. The results of the CFA confirmed the structure of the four-factor model with 14 items, and the indices of model fit showed that the model was sufficiently consistent with the data. Moreover, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and ICC values indicate a desirable level of internal consistency and test-retest reliability.Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the Persian SASS-14 scale enjoys good reliability and validity. This scale is useful for assessing the self-care activities in Iranian people during COVID-19.