Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for assessing functioning, disability, and health of people with spinal cord injury - a scoping review.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the most frequently used Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROM) for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and to explore how they assess function, disability, and health in the framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Additionally, the psychometric properties of the identified PROMs were investigated.

Design: Scoping review.

Methods: MEDLINE (Ovid) and CINAHL (EBSCO) electronic databases were searched for PROMs that assess functioning, disability, and health in people with SCI. Eligible PROMs were linked to the ICF and further screened based on how thoroughly they covered the ICF categories of the Brief ICF Core Sets for people with SCI. Finally, a search was performed to investigate the psychometric properties of selected PROMs.

Results: Of the most frequently applied PROMs, 21 were linked to the ICF. Items of the Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors (CHIEF), the Nottwil Environmental Factors Inventory Short Form (NEFI-SF), the Spinal Cord Injury Secondary Conditions Scale (SCI-SCS), and the Spinal Cord Independence Measure - Self Report (SCIM-SR) covered the constructs of the Brief ICF Core Sets most comprehensively, and their psychometric properties were assessed. The psychometric properties of the SCIM-SR had been examined the most thoroughly, and its validity and reliability were acceptable.

Conclusions: Sufficient psychometric properties encourage using the SCIM-SR to assess functioning in daily activities of people with SCI whereas CHIEF, NEFI-SF, and SCI-SCS measure meaningful constructs but need more psychometric research.