The ‘risk inventory for persons with spinal cord injury’: Development and preliminary validation of a risk assessment tool for spinal cord injury

Abstract

Purpose. To present a new short instrument to measure perceived risks of common everyday activities engaged in by persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), and to provide preliminary data on its psychometric properties.

Method. Community-dwelling men and women with SCI (N = 139) in metropolitan Detroit completed the risk inventory for persons with spinal cord injury (RISCI). They also answered a risk-taking identity question (‘Are you a risk-taker’?) and completed the risk orientation questionnaire (ROQ) (Rohrmann, http://www.rohrmannresearch.net/, 2008), a risk propensity measure.

Results. All items of the RISCI correlated positively with each other and the total score; internal reliability as measured by Cronbach's α was 0.86. Principal components factor analysis confirmed a one-factor structure which explained 41% of the variance. A three-factor solution with readily interpretable factors explained 64% of the variance. Content validity was established through extensive consultations with persons with SCI in the development of the measure. Discriminant validity was supported by the ability of the RISCI to distinguish between subsamples (for example, between men and women, those with paraplegia and tetraplegia) for whom differences in risk assessment might be expected. Criterion validity was supported by significant relationships in the expected directions between the RISCI and risk-taking identity and between the RISCI and the ROQ.

Conclusions. Findings suggest that the RISCI is a brief, easy to administer and psychometrically sound measure of perceived risk of activities common in daily life for use with persons with SCI.

Keywords:

• Spinal cord injury
• risk and assessment

Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by a grant from the Institutes of Health (NIH/NICHD/NCMRR, #R01 1HD43378) to the second author. The authors thank the individuals with SCI who participated in this study.