Purpose To translate and cross-culturally adapt the Work-Ability Support Scale (WSS) into Chinese and evaluate the reliability and validity of the measure among young and middle-aged stroke survivors. Methods A total of 210 participants aged 28-60 years were recruited from two communities in Zhengzhou. Item analysis, internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and construct validity were tested. Results A moderate level of correlation between the items and the domains (r > 0.60), and the significant differences in items between the high group and the low group were tested by independent sample t-tests (P < 0.001). For Part A, Cronbach's α of the domains "physical", "thinking and communication", and "social/behavioural" was 0.865, 0.857 and 0.912, respectively. The Cronbach's α coefficient of Part A of the WSS was calculated as 0.931. The Cronbach's α of Part B was 0.761, with Cronbach's α values of 0.795, 0.649 and 0.643 for "personal factors", "environmental factors (within the workplace)", and "barriers to return to work", respectively. The split-half coefficients of Parts A and B were assessed as 0.804 and 0.559, respectively. The kappa coefficient of the other items all exceeded 0.60 (P < 0.001), except for a few items. The scale-level content validity index (S-CVI) was 0.94 and 0.90 for Parts A and B, respectively. The original construct of the scale was examined by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and model fit indices were mostly satisfactory. Conclusion The WSS is a reliable and valid tool for measuring young and middle-aged Chinese stroke survivors' work ability and support needs during their return to work.
Keywords: Reliability; Return to work; Stroke; Validity; Work-Ability Support Scale.