Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS)
Recommended frequency: Every 4 weeks
Summary
The Work and Social Adjustment Scale (“WSAS”) is a simple and reliable measure for impairment in functioning. The WSAS assesses the impact of a person’s mental health difficulties on their ability to function in terms of work, home management, social leisure, private leisure and personal or family relationships. This instrument is 5 questions long, and is a sensitive and useful outcome measure with correlations to severity of depression and some anxiety symptoms.
Psychometric Properties
Cronbach’s alpha measure of internal scale consistency ranged from 0.70 to 0.94. Test-retest correlation was 0.73. Correlations of WSAS with severity of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms were 0.76 and 0.61, respectively. The scores were sensitive to patient differences in disorder severity and treatment-related change.
Sources:
- http://www.goodmedicine.org.uk/files/assessment,%20disability,%200-8%20five%20areas,%20scoring_0.pdf
- https://digital.nhs.uk/binaries/content/assets/website-assets/data-and-information/data-sets/iapt/guide-to-iapt-data-and-publications.pdf
The Scale
Mental Health can affect one’s ability to do certain day-to-day tasks in their lives. Please read each item below and respond based on how much your mental health impairs your ability to carry out the activity.
Scoring
The total WSAS score is calculated by adding up all of the items. A WSAS score above 20 appears to suggest moderately severe or worse psychopathology. Scores between 10 and 20 are associated with significant functional impairment but less severe clinical symptomatology. Scores below 10 appear to be associated with subclinical populations.
Copyright Information
Mundt, J. C., I. M. Marks, et al. (2002). “The Work and Social Adjustment Scale: A simple measure of impairment in functioning.” Br. J. Psychiatry 180: 461-4. Reproduced with the kind permission of Professor Isaac Marks.
