Function Assessment Scale

Purpose and Development

The Function Assessment Scale was designed to evaluate perinatal women’s perceptions of their ability to perform daily tasks. Developed by Bah et al. (2025), this scale assesses functional status by examining the extent to which pregnant women and new mothers engage in daily activities for themselves, their families, and their communities.

The development of the scale followed a structured methodological approach inspired by Bolton and Tang (2002). Initially, a 12-item preliminary version was created, which was later refined through linguistic validation. The items were first translated into Krio, then back-translated into English to ensure semantic accuracy. During this process, five items were eliminated due to cultural inappropriateness or irrelevance to daily tasks.

The scale was administered to perinatal women in Western Area and Bombali, Sierra Leone. Analysis revealed that removing the item “Engage in income-generating activities” improved the internal consistency of the scale. Many women reported a lack of participation in income-generating activities, resulting in a low mean score for this item. Consequently, the item was eliminated, and “cooking” was added to represent daily chores, leading to the final 5-item version.

Format and Administration

Participants were asked to assess the level of difficulty they faced in performing each listed task compared to other perinatal women of their age. The response format employed a four-point Likert scale, visually represented by an image of a man carrying weights to symbolize varying degrees of difficulty.

Reliability and Validity

Reliability

• Internal Consistency: The Cronbach’s alpha for the 7-item version was 0.890. After removing “Engage in income-generating activities,” the alpha value increased to 0.92, demonstrating improved reliability.

Validity

• No specific validity measures were reported.

Factor Analysis

• No factor analysis results were provided.

Population and Sample Characteristics

• Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)
• Population Group: Pregnant women and new mothers
• Study Location: Sierra Leone
• Classification: Functional Status and Adaptive Behavior (6200)

Items of the Function Assessment Scale

Items of the Function Assessment Scale

The final scale consists of five items that assess perinatal women’s ability to carry out daily tasks:

1. Perform personal hygiene activities
2. Prepare meals for the household
3. Clean living spaces
4. Care for children
5. Engage in social interactions with family and community

These items reflect fundamental aspects of daily functional living, emphasizing physical and social well-being among perinatal women.

Author Information

• Bah, Abdulai Jawo (Institute for Global Health and Development, Queen Margaret University)
  • ORCID: 0000-0002-3334-7882
  • Email: [email protected]
• Wurie, Haja Ramatulai (College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of Sierra Leone)
• Samai, Mohamed (College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of Sierra Leone)
• Horn, Rebecca (Institute for Global Health and Development, Queen Margaret University)
  • ORCID: 0000-0002-9869-544X
• Ager, Alastair (Institute for Global Health and Development, Queen Margaret University)
  • ORCID: 0000-0002-9474-3563

Reference

Bah, A. J., Wurie, H. R., Samai, M., Horn, R., & Ager, A. (2025). Developing and validating the Sierra Leone perinatal psychological distress scale through an emic-etic approach. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 19, Article 100852. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2024.100852