the reliability and validity of kohlman evaluation of living skills in schizophrenic patients

introduction: considering schizophrenic patients’ problems with living skills, it seems necessary to evaluate these skills in this group of patients. in the present study, the kohlman evaluation of living skills (kels), developed by linda thomson kohlman at seattle, washington (1978), was first translated into persian and then its reliability and validity was determined. materials & methods: to evaluate test- retest reliability, interrater reliability, and concurrent validity and construct validity of the persian version of kels, this cross- sectional analytical-descriptive study was conducted. the subjects who were assessed by the persian version included 105 outpatients with schizophrenia, 35 inpatients with schizophrenia and 35 nonpsychiatric participants. results: the comparison of two sets of scores, gathered by two separate evaluators from 30 outpatients (r=0.997), as well as the results of test retest reliability in 24 outpatients (r=0.967) showed an acceptable reliability of the persian version of kels. the concurrent validity was determined by comparing the scores of 35 inpatients obtained via kels and those obtained through global assessment scale (r=0.886). the persian version of kels was found to be able to differentiate between living skills of nonpsychiatric participants and schizophrenic patients supporting construct validity. conclusion: this study demonstrated that the kohlman evaluation of living skills has an appropriate reliability and validity for being used with the population of schizophrenic patients.