Spinal Cord Injury – Quality of Life Ability to Participate in Social Roles and Activities

Last Updated

January 05, 2016

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Purpose

The SCI-QOL Ability to Participate in SRA instrument is used to assess the ability of individuals with spinal cord injury to participate in social roles and activities.

Link to Instrument

Instrument Details

Acronym SCI-QOL Ability to Participate in SRA

Area of Assessment

Life Participation
Social Relationships

Assessment Type

Patient Reported Outcomes

Administration Mode

Computer

Cost

Free

Cost Description

Paper copies of short forms are available. PDFs can be requested through emails to sci-qol@udel.edu and tbi-qol@udel.edu

Electronic versions can be found in the NIH Toolbox or the PROMIS app. Either app is $500/yr, and covers up to 10 iPads on a single license. The SCI-QOL and TBI-QOL CATs can be administered directly through these apps. It is important to note that using the app requires you to be physically with the participant or read the questions aloud by interview over the phone - there is no way to send a link to have someone complete the measures at home.

Free electronic versions are available. If your institution has REDCap, the CATs and short forms can be accessed through the REDCap instrument library by searching for the specific measure you want and adding them to your REDCap project. For non-REDCap alternatives, the SCI-QOL and TBI-QOL short forms can be imported into an alternative electronic administration platform such as Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, etc. Email sci-qol@udel.edu or tbi-qol@udel.edu to request PDF versions.

Diagnosis/Conditions

Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal Injuries

The SCI-QOL Ability to Participate in SRA measure is an item response theory (IRT)-calibrated item bank with 27 items that is available for administration as a computer adaptive test (CAT; range 4-12 items) or short form (SF). Every item in the item bank was originally written for Neuro-QOL.

Number of Items

28
Short Form: 10
The CAT: 4-12

The Short Form requires only the printed form and a pencil.
A CAT administration requires a desktop, laptop, or tablet computer with internet connection
Please see 'Cost Description' for more information on how to access this measure

Less than 5 minutes

Required Training

Reading an Article/Manual

Adults

18 - 64

years

Older Adults

65 +

years

Instrument Reviewers

Review completed by Pamela Kisala, M.A. and Matthew Cohen, Ph.D.

ICF Domain

Participation

Measurement Domain

General Health

Considerations

Do you see an error or have a suggestion for this instrument summary? Please e-mail us!

Standard Error of Measurement (SEM)

Depends on the mode of administration:

Full Item Bank: Mean SEM= 0.19 (range= 0.12 – 0.57)
10-Item Short Form: Mean SEM= 1.9 (range= 0.12 - 0.57)
10-item Fixed-length CAT: Mean SEM= 0.186(range 0.11 – 0.55)
Variable-length CAT (Min 8): Mean SEM= 0.17 (range= 0.12 – 0.55)
Variable-length CAT (Min 4): Mean SEM= 0.21 (range= 0.16 - 0.55)

Minimal Detectable Change (MDC)

Calculated from SEM

Full Item Bank: MDC= 0.53
10-item Fixed-length CAT: MDC= 0.50
Variable-length CAT: MDC= 0.47

Normative Data

Mixed healthy/neurological population (Gershon et al., 2012)

Scores on the SCI-QOL Ability to Participate in SRA reference the Neuro-QOL sample, which comprise a mixed sample of neurological healthy adults and adults with neurological illnesses (stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

Test/Retest Reliability

Traumatic SCI (Heinemann et al., 2015)

Adequate: (Pearson's r= 0.75)
Adequate: (ICC= .74)

Internal Consistency

Traumatic SCI (Heinemann et al., 2015)

Excellent internal consistency (Chronbach’s alpha = Exceeds 0.80 between T-scores of 20 and 60)

Criterion Validity (Predictive/Concurrent)

Traumatic SCI (data in preparation)

Adequate concurrent validity predicting the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART; r = .47).

Construct Validity

Traumatic SCI (manuscript in preparation)

The SCI-QOL Ability to Participate in SRA item bank demonstrated good convergent validity by correlating strongly with measures of satisfaction with life (Satisfaction with Life Scale r = .61), independence (SCI-QOL Independence r = .70), and depression (PHQ-9 r = -.57).

Content Validity

Content was derived from focus groups and cognitive interviews with individuals with traumatic SCI (n=65) and clinicians who specialize in SCI (n=42), as well as focus groups with individuals with other neurological illnesses (n=64) and their caregivers (n=19) (See Tulsky et al., 2011).

Face Validity

Not formally established, but content was generated from individuals with SCI and expert clinicians, so face validity is believed to be strong.

Floor/Ceiling Effects

(Heinemann et al., 2015)

Full Item Bank:

Floor Effect: Excellent (0.16%)
Ceiling Effect: Adequate to Excellent (2.5%)

10-Item Short Form:

Floor Effect: Excellent (0.16%)
Ceiling Effect: Adequate to Excellent (6.85%)

10-Item fixed-length CAT:

Floor Effect: Excellent (0.16%)
Ceiling Effect: Adequate to Excellent (3.4%)

Variable-length CAT (Min 8):

Floor Effect: Excellent (0.16%)
Ceiling Effect: Adequate to Excellent (3.12%)

Variable Length CAT (Min 4):

Floor Effect: Excellent (0.16%)
Ceiling Effect: Adequate to Excellent (3.12%)

Bibliography

Gershon et al. (2012). Neuro-QOL: quality of life item banksfor adults with neurological disorders: Item development and calibrations based upon clinical and general population testing. Quality of Life Research, 21(3), 476-486

Heinemann et al. (2015). Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Ability to Participate and Satisfaction with Social Roles and Activities item banks and short forms. Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 38(3), 397-408.