Article

OBJECTIVES: To develop functional ability levels for the Spinal Cord Injury
Functional Index (SCI-FI) and to validate them using calibration and reliability
samples. DESIGN: Three-phase strategy involved (1) performing quantitative
synthesis of SCI-FI data to create item maps; (2) using a panel of experts to
identify functional ability levels after the bookmarking and Delphi
consensus-building process; and (3) performing quantitative analyses to examine
demographic characteristics across 2 samples, assessing the distribution pattern
across functional ability levels, and examining concurrent validity using the
self-reported functional measure and the observer-rated FIM. SETTING: Inpatient
and community settings. PARTICIPANTS: People 18 years or older with traumatic
spinal cord injury (N=1124) were recruited from the Spinal Cord Injury Model
Systems programs and stratified by diagnosis, severity, and time since injury
(n=855 and n=269 for calibration and reliability samples, respectively).
INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE:
SCI-FI. RESULTS: Five
functional ability levels were identified for all SCI-FI domains, except fine
motor having 4 functional ability levels. Statistical test results indicated no
significant differences in the distribution pattern across the 2 samples across
functional ability levels for all domains except for ambulation. Known-group
comparisons were able to discern the spinal cord injury population as expected.
Basic mobility, self-care, and wheelchair mobility domains had a cluster of
persons with paraplegia and incomplete lesions at higher functional ability
levels and persons with tetraplegia and complete lesions at lower functional
ability levels. For the ambulation domain, the distribution was skewed to the
lower end, with a relatively small percentage of persons with incomplete lesions
(paraplegia and tetraplegia) at higher functional ability levels. For the fine
motor domain, the distribution was skewed to higher functional ability levels,
with a high percentage of persons with paraplegia at the highest level (complete
and incomplete lesions). Concurrent validity analyses revealed SCI-FI functional
levels to be significantly (P<.001) positively correlated with both the
self-reported functional measure and the observer-rated FIM. CONCLUSIONS:
Clinicians can use functional ability levels to discuss patients' functional
capabilities with them and their family.
CI - Copyright (c) 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS