Article

PURPOSE: To provide a translation and cultural adaptation of the Spinal Cord
Independence Measure version III scale for Italy (i-SCIM3) and to validate this
version of the scale. METHOD: i-SCIM3 was developed involving a forward-backward
translation and administered to patients with spinal cord lesions (SCL) admitted
to two centers. Two raters for each center evaluated patients at admission and
discharge. Psychometric testing included reliability by internal consistency
(Cronbach's alpha) and test-retest reliability. The validity of i-SCIM3 was
assessed by comparing it with the Italian version of Functional Independence
Measure (FIM). RESULTS: One hundred three adult patients with SCL (84 males) with
a mean age of 50.33+/-15.35 years were recruited. Seventy-four patients were
paraplegic and 29 patients were tetraplegic. The median time elapsed between the
two evaluations was 77.5 days (interquartile range, 53-144 days). Internal
consistency, inter-rater reliability, and test-retest reliability were
satisfactory overall, showing values higher than 0.90. The validity of i-SCIM3
was confirmed by the close correlation with FIM results both at admission and
discharge (r=0.91, p<0.01). The sensitivity to change of i-SCIM3 was similar to
that of FIM. CONCLUSION: i-SCIM3 was found to be a consistent, reliable, and
valid scale for use in the clinical setting. It is the first validated scale in
Italian for patients with SCL.

Langue : ANGLAIS