Test–retest reliability of Antonovsky’s 13-item sense of coherence scale in patients with hand-related disorders

Purpose: To report on the distribution and test-retest reliability of Antonovsky’s 13-item Sense of Coherence (SOC-13) Scale in patients with hand-related disorders (HRD). Links between the SOC-13 score and factors such as age, number of days between date of injury and start of rehabilitation, gender and educational level were explored. Method: Survey with test–retest, using self-administered questionnaire. SOC-13 was completed before starting rehabilitation at an outpatient clinic after 14 days and three months. Adult patients with HRD were included. Results: A total of 170 participants completed the SOC-13 at baseline (median SOC 71, range 30–91). The Intra-class Correlation Coefficient between baseline and 14 days was 0.84 (n = 151), and baseline and three months was 0.79 (n = 113). Weak correlations were found between SOC and age rs = 0.17, p < 0.03. No correlation was found between SOC and number of days since injury rs = 0.01, p > 0.92. No difference was found in SOC score related to gender or educational level. Conclusions: The SOC-13 scale showed reliability for patients with HRD. There was a weak connection between age and SOC without clinical relevance. SOC-13 has the potential to be a powerful tool to measure the ICF component personal factors, which could have an impact on patients’ rehabilitation outcomes.Implications for rehabilitationAntonovsky’s SOC-13 scale showed test-retest reliability for patients with hand-related disorders.The SOC-13 scale could be a suitable tool to help measure personal factors.