The validity in persons with spinal cord injury of a self-reported functional measure derived from the functional independence measure

Study Design. A cross-sectional, mailed survey on impairment and function u sing 6361 respondents to the Spinal Cord Dysfunction National Veterans Surv ey who reported spinal cord injury as the sole cause of their spinal cord d ysfunction. Objectives. To establish the concurrent and construct validities of a Self- Reported Functional Measure appropriate for use in patients with spinal cor d injuries. Summary of Background Data. Functional assessment is of increasing importan ce in clinical care, quality assurance, and national health-care planning. There is a conspicuous need for validated functional assessment measures th at are rapid, reliable, and appropriate for use in the disabled population. Methods. The correlation was examined of hours of personal assistance, numb er of affected limbs, amount of motor impairment, and amount of combined li mb-motor impairment to Self-Reported Functional Measure response tertile (s cores, 13-32, 33-45, 46-52; lower scores indicated worse function). Results: There were statistically significant correlations between Self-Rep orted Functional Measure score and hours of personal assistance (P < 0.001) , the number of affected limbs (P < 0.001), the amount of motor impairment (P < 0.001), and the amount of combined limb-motor impairment (P < 0.001). For example, 87% of people with the most limb-motor impairment (four affect ed limbs and no useful movement) were in the lowest Self-reported Functiona l Measure tertile, compared with 3% of people in the least-affected categor y of limb-motor impairment. Furthermore, visual, sensory, or memory impairm ent did not influence the correlation between limb-motor impairment and Sel f-Reported Functional Measure score. Conclusions. The Self-Reported Functional Measure shows good concurrent and construct validities.