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Published on: January 5, 2015
A telephone-based version of the spinal cord injury-secondary conditions scale: a reliability and validity study
M Arora1, L A Harvey1, L Lavrencic2
1John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, Kolling Institute of Medical Research, Sydney Medical School/Northern, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to determine the inter-rater reliability and validity of using a telephone-based version of the spinal cord injury-secondary conditions scale (SCI-SCS).
Trial Design:
A psychometric study was conducted.
Setting:
The study was conducted in Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
Participants:
Forty people with a complete or an incomplete spinal cord injury.
Methods:
Inter-rater reliability was tested by comparing the telephone-based version of the SCI-SCS administered on two different days by two different telephone assessors. Validity was tested by comparing the telephone-based version of the SCI-SCS with the paper-based version of the SCI-SCS.
Results:
The median (interquartile range) age and time since injury were 54 (48-63) years and 28 (14-35) years, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient (95% confidence interval) reflecting the agreement between the telephone-based version of the SCI-SCS administered on two different days by two different assessors was 0.96 (0.93-0.98). The corresponding value reflecting agreement between the telephone-based assessment and the paper-based assessment was 0.90 (0.83-0.95).
Conclusion:
The telephone-based version of the SCI-SCS is a simple and a quick questionnaire to administer that has both inter-rater reliability and validity. It may be useful as a way to screen for secondary health conditions in low- and middle-income countries where it is not always feasible to provide routine face-to-face follow-ups and where literacy may be a problem.
