Screening Activity Limitation and Safety Awareness Scale (SALSA)

Original Editor - Redisha Jakibanjar

Top Contributors - Kim Jackson and Redisha Jakibanjar  

Objective[edit | edit source]

The Screening of Activity Limitation and Safety Awareness is often referred to as SALSA. It is used to measure activity limitation in peripheral neuropathy, often seen in conditions such as diabetes.[1]

  • Identify persons with activity limitation.
  • Assess the extent of Activity Limitation and the risk of increasing impairment.
  • Target people affected by leprosy, diabetes or other peripheral neuropathies
  • Be applicable world-wide.
  • Be used in combination with “Impairment” and “Participation-Restriction”4 tools in order to measure disablement from a holistic point of view.
  • Provide a means to measure the results of interventions whose goal is to improve function and/or self care.

Intended Population[edit | edit source]

People affected by[1]

  • Leprosy
  • Diabetes and
  • Other peripheral neuropathies in both low-income and developed areas.

Method of Use[edit | edit source]

The scale is usually interviewed by the trained personnel. Any literate medical or non-medical worker/volunteer can administer the SALSA Scale. People using the SALSA Scale should have proper training during two days from an experienced, previously trained user. The training should address how to administer the questionnaire, how to calculate the score and how to interpret the results.[1]

Some of the tips are:

1. Clarify the aim of the questionnaire.

2. All questions must be asked.

3. All questions must be asked exactly as is written on the form in Bold

4. Questions are close-ended.

5. It is the respondent’s personal opinion of each activity question that should be

recorded. 

Evidence[edit | edit source]

Reliability[edit | edit source]

Internal consistency:[edit | edit source]

  • correlation coefficients - 0.31 to 0.65
  • Crohnbach’s alpha - 0.70 and 0.90

Test-retest reliability:[edit | edit source]

  • intra-tester reliability- the 20 items had Kappa’s ranging from 0·51–1; 15 items had Kappa’s > 0·6; 12 items had Kappa’s > 0·7.
  • inter-tester reliability- Kappa’s ranged from 0·45–0·8; 15 items had Kappa’s > 0·6; 8 items had Kappa’s > 0·7[1]

Validity[edit | edit source]

Construct validity: good [2]

Convergent validity: good

Face validity: established [1]

Links[edit | edit source]

https://www.leprosy-information.org/content/salsa-scale

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 SALSA Collaborative Study Group. SALSA scale (Screening Activity Limitation and Safety Awareness): users manual. Available from : https://www.leprosy-information.org/files/SALSA%20manual%20v1.1pdf_0.pdf
  2. Melchior H, Velema J. A comparison of the Screening Activity Limitation and Safety Awareness (SALSA) scale to objective hand function assessments. Disability and rehabilitation. 2011 Jan 1;33(21-22):2044-52. available from : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51677786_A_comparison_of_the_Screening_Activity_Limitation_and_Safety_Awareness_SALSA_scale_to_objective_hand_function_assessments