The UW-SES-6 is a short-form scale that measures the ability of patients with chronic conditions to deal with challenges related to those chronic conditions.
Questions on the short form scale ask patients with chronic conditions about how their conditions affect their social life, physical health, mental health, as well as other factors.

ICF Domain

Activities and Participation ▶ Major Life Areas

Administration

Each of the six responses are scored from 1 (“not at all”) to 5 (“completely”). The sum of the response scores is then scaled to a T-score, a normal distribution with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10 for patients with chronic conditions.

Number of Items

6 items (long form is 19 items)

Equipment

None

Languages

English

Training Required

Does not require advanced training.

Availability

Available for free here.

# of studies reporting psychometric properties: 3

Interpretability

MCID: not established for SCI
SEM: not established for SCI
MDC: not established for SCI

Reliability

  • Reliability is High for the Person Separation Index (PSI = 0.89)
  • Internal consistency is High in study with participants with either SCI or MS (α = 0.90)

(Amtmann et al. 2012, Post et al. 2018)

Validity

There is a High Correlation with Chronic Disease Self-Efficacy 6-Item Scale (in study with participants with either SCI or MS) (r = 0.81)

(Amtmann et al. 2012)

Responsiveness

Not established in SCI.

Floor/Ceiling Effect

Not established in SCI.

Reviewers

Dr. Carlos Cano-Herrera, Elsa Sun

Date Last Updated

31 December 2024

Amtmann D, Bamer AM, Cook KF, Askew RL, Noonan VK, Brockway JA. University of Washington self-efficacy scale: a new self-efficacy scale for people with disabilities. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2012;93(10):1757-65. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003999312003206?via%3Dihub

Chung H, Kim J, Park R, Bamer AM, Bocell FD, Amtmann D. Testing the measurement invariance of the University of Washington Self-Efficacy Scale short form across four diagnostic subgroups.  Qual Life Res. 2016;25(10):2559-2564. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5011442/

Post MWM, Adriaansen JJE, Peter C. Rasch analysis of the University of Washington Self-Efficacy Scale short-form (UW-SES-6) in people with long-standing spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord. 2018;56(11):1095-1101. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41393-018-0166-z

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