Spinal Cord Injury–Functional Index/Assistive Technology Short Forms

• Published in: Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation Vol. 97; no. 10; pp. 1745 - 1752.e7
• Main Authors: Slavin, Mary D., PT, PhD, Ni, Pengsheng, MPH, MD, Tulsky, David S., PhD, Kisala, Pamela A., MA, Heinemann, Allen W., PhD, FACRM, Charlifue, Susan, PhD, Fyffe, Denise C., PhD, Graves, Daniel E., PhD, Marino, Ralph J., MD, Morse, Leslie R., DO, Rosenblum, David, MD, Tate, Denise, PhD, Worobey, Lynn A., PhD, Dawson, Mary Beth, MPH, Jette, Alan M., PT, PhD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-10-2016
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living; Adult; Cross-Sectional Studies; Disability Evaluation; Female; Hemiplegia - rehabilitation; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Outcome assessment (health care); Paraplegia - rehabilitation; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; Physical Therapy Modalities; Psychometrics; Rehabilitation; Reproducibility of Results; Self Care; Self-Help Devices; Socioeconomic Factors; Spinal cord injuries; Spinal Cord Injuries - classification; Spinal Cord Injuries - psychology; Spinal Cord Injuries - rehabilitation; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Trauma Severity Indices; Walking; computerized adaptive test; spinal cord injury; Activities of daily living; SCI-FI; test information function; SCI-FI/AT; Psychometrics; assistive technology; IRT; Spinal Cord Injury–Functional Index; short form; TIF; AT; Spinal Cord Injury–Functional Index/Assistive Technology; SF; CAT; SCI; Spinal cord injuries; Rehabilitation; item response theory; Outcome assessment (health care)
• ISSN: 0003-9993; 1532-821X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2016.03.029

Abstract Objectives To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spinal Cord Injury–Functional Index/Assistive Technology (SCI-FI/AT) short forms (SFs) in the domains of basic mobility, self-care, fine motor function, and ambulation based on internal consistency; correlations between SFs and full item banks, and a 10-item computerized adaptive test (CAT) version; magnitude of ceiling and floor effects; and measurement precision across a broad range of function in a sample of adults with spinal cord injury (SCI). Design Cross-sectional cohort study. Setting Nine national Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems programs. Participants A sample of adults with traumatic SCI (N=460) stratified by level of injury (paraplegia/tetraplegia), completeness of injury, and time since SCI. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures SCI-FI/AT full item bank, 10-item CAT, and SFs (with separate Self-Care and Fine Motor Function SFs for persons with tetraplegia and paraplegia). Results The SCI-FI/AT SFs demonstrated very good internal consistency, group-level reliability, and excellent correlations between SFs and scores based on the CAT version and the total item bank. Ceiling and floor effects are acceptable (except for unacceptable ceiling effects for persons with paraplegia on the Self-Care and Fine Motor Function SFs). The test information functions are excellent across a broad range of functioning typical of persons with paraplegia and tetraplegia. Conclusions Clinicians and researchers should consider using the SCI-FI/AT SFs to assess functioning with the use of assistive technology when CAT applications are not available.