Structural validity and reliability of the return to work assessment scale among post stroke survivors.

Background: Return to work (RTW) after injury or illness is a behavior influenced by physical, psychological and social factors. This study aims to determine the structural validity and reliability of a return to work assessment scale using internal consistency and factor analysis.

Method: A cross sectional survey research design was adopted for this study involving 101 Post stroke survivors. The return to work assessment scale, which was developed by Ibikunle et al. in 2019, was subjected to structural validity and reliability.

Result: The results reveal that 58 (57.4%) were males and 43 (42.2%) females with mean ages of 53.88±10.68 years. Internal consistency was high with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.81 for Domain 1, 0.93 for Domain 2 and 0.76 for Domain 3.Test-retest reliability analysis gave an ICC of 0.85(p = 0.001) for Domain 1, Domain 2 an ICC of 0.91 (p = 0.001) and Domain 3 an ICC of 0.99 (p = 0.001). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO) value for Domain 1 was X2  = 0.63 and that of Bartlett's test of sphericity value was significant (P = 0.000), Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy for Domain 2 was 0.84 and the Bartlett's test of sphericity value was significant (P = 0.000), the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy for Domain 3 was 0.66 while the Barlett's test of sphericity was significant (p = 0.001). Therefore the factor analysis was appropriate.

Conclusion: The return to work assessment scale is a good, internally consistent and reliable tool that has demonstrated good group and structural validity.