Reliability Validity and Responsiveness of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure 4th Version in a Multicultural Setup

Abstract

Objective: To examine the fourth version of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure for reliability and validity. Design: Partly blinded comparison with the criterion standard Spinal Cord Independence Measure III, and between examiners and examinations. Setting: A multicultural cohort from 19 spinal cord injury units in 11 countries. Participants: A total of 648 patients with spinal cord injury. Intervention: Assessment with Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM IV) and Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM III) on admission to inpatient rehabilitation and before discharge. Main outcome measures: SCIM IV interrater reliability, internal consistency, correlation with and difference from SCIM III, and responsiveness. Results: Total agreement between examiners was above 80% on most SCIM IV tasks. All Kappa coefficients were above 0.70 and statistically significant (P