Aims This article describes a study that aimed to validate the Self-care in Chronic Conditions Partners in Health Scale instrument in the Mexican population. The instrument has been validated in Australia for use as a screening tool by primary healthcare professionals to assess the self-care skills and abilities of people with a chronic illness.

Methods Validation was conducted using baseline data for 552 people with diabetes, hypertension and cancer aged 18 or older who were users of healthcare centres in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Results Results show high reliability and validity of the instrument and three themes were identified: knowledge, adherence, and dealing with and managing side effects.

Conclusion The findings suggest the scale is useful as a generic self-rated clinical tool for assessing self-management in a range of chronic conditions, and provides an outcome measure for comparing populations and change in patient self-management knowledge and behaviour. The authors recommend validating the scale in other Latin-American settings with more research into the effect of gender on self- management.