Development of the Arabic Version of the Performance Assessment of Self-Care Skills

Objective: The lack of standardized valid and reliable functional assessment tools in the Arab region isintensely alarming. This shortage urges healthcare professionals in the rehabilitation field, namelyoccupational therapists, to develop adapt or translate robust instruments to ensure the best patient care.The purpose of this study was to describe the development process of the Arabic version of thePerformance Assessment of Self-Care Skills.Methods: The development process took place in three steps. The first step involved excluding itemsthat were not culturally relevant to the Arab culture. The second step involved translating the originalversion of the assessment tool from English to Arabic using the World Health Organization forwardbackwardtranslation protocol. The last step involved adding culturally-relevant functional activitiescommonly performed by patients in the Jordanian/Arab community.Results: Five items were excluded from the original tool before translating the tool to Arabic. Also, fiveitems that were culturally-relevant were added to the Arabic version of the tool.Conclusion: The Arabic version of the Performance Assessment of Self-Care Skills is the first Arabicperformance-based instrument measuring functional independence for a wide majority of patients. Weexpect the tool to have a broad clinical utility not only in Jordan or Arabic countries but also forimmigrants and citizens of Arab origins worldwide.