Article

The purpose of this article is to utilise the perspective of persons
with a spinal cord injury (SCI), gained from focus groups, to validate
recommended clinical measures of outcome. METHOD: Clinical measures of outcome as
recommended by Wood-Dauphinee and the SCI Consensus Group were categorised using
the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning,
Disability and Health (ICF). These were then cross-referenced to the problems of
functioning identified by patients in 10 focus groups held in New Zealand as part of the International ICF Core Set project. The focus groups were performed
separately for people in the post-acute situation and in the chronic situation to
address different experiences since SCI. RESULTS: In the post-acute group, the recommended measures of functioning, the Functional Independence Measure (FIM),
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Visual Analogue Scale for pain
correlated well against the focus groups identification of problems of
functioning. In the chronic group, the short-form Craig Handicap Assessment and
Reporting Technique (sf-CHART), the SF-12 and the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire
(LSQ) largely captured the problems of functioning identified. There were some
categories that were common to both patient groups and were not changed by time
since SCI. In addition, there were some problems of functioning identified by the
patient groups that were not covered by the suggested measures. CONCLUSIONS:
Utilisation of a battery of outcome measures based on a theoretical framework can
quantify problems of functioning in the SCI population. Although the measures
suggested by SCI Consensus Group largely capture the problems of functioning,
other outcome measures have been shown to be more responsive to the changes in
the SCI population and also incorporate more of the identified problems of
functioning.

Langue : ANGLAIS