Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2001 Feb;39(2):97-100.
doi: 10.1038/sj.sc.3101118.

The spinal cord independence measure (SCIM): sensitivity to functional changes in subgroups of spinal cord lesion patients

A Catz  1 , M Itzkovich, E Agranov, H Ring, A Tamir
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

The spinal cord independence measure (SCIM): sensitivity to functional changes in subgroups of spinal cord lesion patients

A Catz et al. Spinal Cord. 2001 Feb.

Abstract

Background: The spinal cord independence measure (SCIM) is a newly developed disability scale specific to patients with spinal cord lesions (SCL). Its sensitivity to functional changes in a whole cohort of SCL patients was found to be better than that of the functional independence measure (FIM).

Objective: o compare the sensitivity to functional changes of the SCIM and the FIM in SCL subgroups.

Design: A comparative self-controlled study.

Setting: The Spinal Department, Loewenstein Rehabilitation Hospital, Raanana, Israel.

Subjects: 22 SCL inpatients.

Interventions: Monthly SCIM and FIM assessments of the subgroups.

Main outcome measures: Functional change detection rate (FDR) and mean differences between consecutive scores (DCS).

Results: The outcome measures of the SCIM were higher than those of the FIM for tetraplegia and paraplegia, complete and incomplete lesions (the FIM missed 25-27% of the functional changes detected by the SCIM; DSC 8.2-11.4 vs 5.2-9; P<0.05 in most comparisons). The SCIM did not exhibit this advantage, however, in the functional areas of self-care and mobility in the room and toilet. Further subgrouping yielded similar results.

Conclusions: The SCIM is more sensitive than the FIM to functional changes in the subgroups studied, and has the potential to serve as a universal tool for disability assessment of SCL patients.

PubMed Disclaimer