The Self Care Assessment Schedule (SCAS)--I. The purpose and construction of a new assessment of self care behaviours.

The Self Care Assessment Schedule (SCAS) is a new questionnaire which measures the frequency of ten behaviours during a period of fourteen days. Data are presented for five patient samples and a group of non consulting controls and the distributions of scores between groups show expected differences. In some groups scores are significantly greater for male subjects and those with the most chronic disorders but scores are not related to age. It is tentatively suggested that the SCAS may be used to determine the severity of aspects of disability based on percentile scores.