Psychometric properties and observational data for COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRSm) for post-COVID-19 syndrome

Abstract

Summary Background The recently developed modified COVID-19 (coronavirus of 2019) Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRSm) captures comprehensive biopsychosocial components of WHO’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health related to the Long Covid or post-COVID syndrome. The scale response categories on C19-YRSm were done post hoc on data collected from the original version of C19-YRS. Aim To evaluate the C19-YRSm scale using reliability and validity measures. Design Prospective, observational study. Methods The study includes 369 patients (clinical group) and 426 subjects of the general population (control group) and captures their post-COVID-19 symptoms. In addition, the reliability of C19-YRSm was estimated by Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of internal consistency and inter-item correlations for subscales (‘Symptom severity, Functional disability, and Other symptoms’). Convergent validity was established using correlations between C19-YRSm and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). The incremental validity of C19-YRSm was measured by introducing a hierarchical regression model using the C19-YRSm ‘Overall health’ subscale and FSS as criterion variables. Results C19-YRSm subscales have excellent internal consistencies (Cronbach’s α value 0.81–0.96) and acceptable inter-item correlations (r value 0.23–0.79). Hereafter, the convergent validity of the C19-YRSm is good due to significant correlations between C19-YRSm subscales and FSS and C19-YRSm subscales. Finally, the hierarchical regression analysis supported consistent evidence for the incremental validity of the C19-YRSm subscales. Conclusion C19-YRSm is a reliable and valid self-assessment scale for the assessment of post-COVID-19 syndrome.