Article

OBJECTIVES: To describe the calibration of the Spinal Cord Injury-Functional
Index (SCI-FI) and report on the initial psychometric evaluation of the SCI-FI
scales in each content domain. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey followed by
calibration data simulations. SETTING: Inpatient and community settings.
PARTICIPANTS: A sample of participants (N=855) with traumatic spinal cord injury
(SCI) recruited from 6 SCI Model Systems and stratified by diagnosis, severity,
and time since injury. INTERVENTIONS: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: SCI-FI
instrument. RESULTS: Item response theory analyses confirmed the
unidimensionality of 5 SCI-FI scales: basic mobility (54 items), fine motor
function (36 items), self-care (90 items), ambulation (39 items), and wheelchair
mobility (56 items). All SCI-FI scales revealed strong psychometric properties.
High correlations of scores on simulated computer adaptive testing (CAT) with the
overall SCI-FI domain scores indicated excellent potential for CAT to accurately
characterize functional profiles of adults with SCI. Overall, there was very
little loss of measurement reliability or precision using CAT compared with the
full item bank; however, there was some loss of reliability and precision at the
lower and upper ranges of each scale, corresponding to regions where there were
few questions in the item banks. CONCLUSIONS: Initial evaluation revealed that
the SCI-FI achieved considerable breadth of coverage in each content domain and
demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties. The use of CAT to administer the
SCI-FI will minimize assessment burden, while allowing for the comprehensive
assessment of the functional abilities of adults with SCI.
CI - Copyright (c) 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS