Concurrent, convergent, divergent validity and stability (test-retest) reliability of the Igbo version of Screening of Activity Limitation and Safety Awareness scale (SALSA) among people living with Hansen’s disease in south-east Nigeria

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the concurrent, convergent and divergent validity as well as the stability reliability of the Igbo version of the SALSA.
Design: Fifty-six participants with Hansen’s disease were recruited from selected rehabilitation centres in Oji River, Uzuakoli and Okija, all in the Eastern part of Nigeria. The original English of SALSA and Igbo version of SALSA as well as the English version of DASH were administered to the participants by the researcher. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient and Bland-Altman’s plotting methods were used to compare the scores of I-SALSA. The Spearman rank order correlation coefficient was used to compare between I-SALSA and DASH, I-SALSA and VRS; and I-SALSA and E-SALSA. The level of significance was set at 0·05.
Results: Participants’ mean age score was 49·5 ^ 12·3 years and the participants score on the I-SALSA correlated significantly on two occasions (ICC ¼ 0·80, P ¼ 0·00) and Bland and Altman plot revealed limits of agreement for two scores of 21·94 to 1·69; evidence of test-retest reliability. There was a significant correlation between participants’ I-SALSA score and E-SALSA score (r ¼ 0·998; P ¼ 0·001) as well as correlation of I-SALSA items and E-SALSA items (correlation coefficient ranges from 0·900–1·000) evidence of construct validity. There was significant correlation between I-SALSA score and DASH score (r ¼ 0·941;P ¼ 0·001) indicating good convergent validity. There was also significant correlation between I-SALSA score and VRS score (r ¼ 0·903; 0·001) evidence of poor divergent validity.
Conclusion: This reveals that I-SALSA has good test-retest reliability, good concurrent and convergent validity and poor divergent validity.