Spinal Cord Independence Measure

Outcome measures in rehabilitation medicine are tools used to evaluate the level of disability.^[1] They can be beneficial for physicians to judge the path of a patient's recovery, for researchers to compare different management protocols and for politicians in order to find the cost-effectiveness of their decisions.^{[citation needed]}

Spinal cord independence measure is a measurement tool for determining the level of function in spinal cord injury

As an outcome measure specifically designed for spinal cord injury, the Spinal Cord Independence Measure is a tool that evaluates how safely, cheaply, and independently a patient can do basic activities of daily living.^[2][3]

Structure

The measure consists of 19 items categorized in three subscales:self care, respiration and sphincter management, and mobility.

Psychometric property

Its last version, SCIM III has been validated in many multicenter trials^[4][5][6] and translated into Italian,^[7] Spanish,^[8] Greek,^[9] Portuguese,^[10] Thai,^[11] Turkish^[12] and Persian^[13] languages. It has been concluded that SCIM III has the most appropriate psychometric properties for measuring functional level of spinal cord injured individuals.^[14][15]