Scales of the Capacity and Performance Assessment Battery
BECAD
Learning and application of knowledge
It consists of 19 questions and has two subscales, Cognition and Expression. It includes activities such as repeating, copying and acquiring simple and complex skills, as well as the application of learned knowledge, thinking, problem solving and decision making. The activities assessed are important for focusing attention, learning new skills, reading instructions or information, or expressing oneself through gestures or symbols. They are also the basis for more complex activities such as studying, learning languages, using digital devices, etc.
2. Communication
It consists of 8 questions and two subscales, Conversing and Perceiving. It deals with the applied aspects of communication, initiating and maintaining conversation, conversing and discussing with one or more people. These activities are essential in all situations where interaction with other people takes place. In addition, it includes the non-verbal aspects of communication, such as looking and listening.
3. General tasks and demands
It consists of 8 questions and two subscales, Tasks and Deciding. It is concerned with planning and executing daily routines as well as identifying errors and correcting them. Identifying dangerous situations and handling crises are also included. These activities are very relevant for the autonomy and safety of the person concerned. Problems in one or more of the categories may require sporadic or continuous supervision of the person being assessed.
4. Health care
This scale consists of 6 questions in which the ability and performance of behaviours related to health care, seeking and following medical and health treatments and the practice of healthy habits are assessed.
5. Self-care
It has 19 questions and three subscales: Hygiene and dressing, Intimate self-care and Eating. It consists of the behaviours and activities traditionally considered as ‘basic activities of daily living’. These are fundamental behaviours for a person’s autonomy, because they deal with elementary aspects of self-care.
6. Walking and moving around
It consists of two subscales, Movement and Moving around, with a total of 28 questions. They deal with movement when changing the body’s position or place; moving while carrying objects, walking, running or climbing. It does not include movement using means of transport, to which scale 8 is aimed.
7. Manipulation
This scale consists of 13 questions and two subscales, Manual dexterity and Static posture. It assesses activities in which manipulation of objects with hands and arms is performed, as well as maintaining positions in which the lower limbs do not have to move, such as sitting and lying down.
8. Getting around using means of transport
It consists of 5 questions dealing with activities related to driving and using means of transport to travel as a passenger, in transport such as car, bus, animal-drawn vehicle, taxi, train, tram, metro, boat or plane.
9. Acquisition of necessities of life
It consists of 5 questions assessing the ability and performance of the activities of buying, renting and arranging housing.
10. Household chores
In 15 questions organised in three subscales (Household chores, Care of plants and animals and Repairs), activities of domestic life such as meal preparation and cleaning and household maintenance of household appliances and utensils, including care of plants and animals and maintenance and repair activities of household objects and clothes are assessed.
11. Interpersonal relations
It consists of 32 questions and six subscales: Helping, General Interpersonal Relationships, Intimate and Living Relationships, Family Relationships and Behaviour Regulation in Relationships. These are fundamental categories in communication and human relationships and moderate or severe problems in any of them can be an obstacle both to the use of treatments and to the social participation of the person assessed.
12. Main areas of life
It consists of 26 items and three subscales: Education and work, Community life and Hobbies. It assesses the management of economic resources, education, employment and social participation in general. It includes complex activities that allow for studies at different levels, finding, keeping and dismissing part-time or full-time work and the management of personal financial resources and complex economic operations. Finally, activities and situations of social participation are measured, such as culture, leisure, spiritual and religious practices.
WHAT IS IT FOR?
It is aimed at health and social-health professionals such as psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, physiotherapists and social workers. It is therefore suitable for use in multidisciplinary resources aimed at the care of people with chronic or complex health conditions. However, it can also be used by professionals working on an individual basis, as communication is facilitated through a variety of individualised reports.
It has been shown to be useful as an adjunct to diagnosis and for setting goals for treatment or intervention. It can also be used as an outcome measure and, finally, in the assessment of disability and dependency.
HOW IS IT ADMINISTERED?
There are different forms of administration. Firstly, there are questions or tasks to be solved by the person being assessed. Other scales are addressed to the professional or related person.
It is possible to obtain the information by means of a semi-structured interview.
For the administration of factor 1 (Learning and application of knowledge), it is necessary to have the booklet of sheets published by the Publications Service of the Universitat Jaume I, within the Psique collection:
Para la administración del factor 1 (Aprendizaje y aplicación del conocimiento), es necesario disponer del cuadernillo de láminas que está publicado por el Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universitat Jaume I, dentro de la colección Psique:
(Moro Ípola, M; Solano Trullenque, L, Pena Garijo, J and Frades García, B, 2018). It can also be downloaded for free if you have a subscription.
THERE ARE THREE WAYS TO OBTAIN THE INFORMATION TO FILL IN THE SCALES
Scoring
Each item is scored on a scale from 0 to 4 and on each scale. The score on each scale is the average of the items.
Questions to the assessed and tasks
First, in a series of items in the first two areas (Learning and application of knowledge and Communication), a series of questions are asked and the test taker is asked to perform a series of tasks. Examples include motor activities, searching for a specific stimulus while being presented with a distractor, identifying symbols and signs, or verbal comprehension tasks.
Hetero-assessment
A second type of question is answered on the basis of the knowledge of the person being assessed. Based on an ICF concept, response alternatives have been developed that allow the total score for each item to be objectified.
Interview
There is a semi-structured interview model, to be administered to the person being assessed or to the family member or carer, which is useful in cases where the assessor does not know the person being assessed sufficiently well.