Measuring positive affect and well-being after spinal cord injury: Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Positive Affect and Well-being bank and short form

Figures & data

Table 1. Calibration sample – participant characteristics

Variable	Emotional domain sample, N = 717 mean (SD), N (%)
Age (years)	43.0 (15.3)
Age at injury (years)	36.1 (16.8)
Sex
Male	559 (78%)
Female	158 (22%)
Ethnicity
Hispanic	82 (11%)
Non-Hispanic	631 (88%)
Race
Caucasian	505 (70%)
African-American	125 (17%)
Asian	8 (1%)
American Indian/Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	7 (1%)
More than one race	9 (1%)
Other	50 (7%)
Time Since Injury	7.1 (10.0)
<1 year post injury	196 (27%)
1–3 years post injury	186 (26%)
>3 years post injury	335 (47%)
Diagnosis
Paraplegia complete	182 (25%)
Paraplegia incomplete	143 (20%)
Tetraplegia complete	157 (22%)
Tetraplegia incomplete	231 (33%)

Table 2. Descriptive item statistics

Item ID	Item stem	Mean	SD	% at min	% at max
NQPPF01	I felt happy about the future	3.71	1.104	3.8	29.5
NQPPF02	I was able to enjoy life	3.90	0.990	1.8	32.2
NQPPF03	I felt a sense of purpose in my life	3.98	1.063	2.4	40.7
NQPPF04	I could laugh and see the humor in situations	4.14	0.895	1.0	41.1
NQPPF05	I was able to be at ease and feel relaxed	3.63	1.033	2.7	23.5
NQPPF06	I looked forward with enjoyment to upcoming events	3.97	1.002	1.4	37.4
NQPPF07	Many areas of my life were interesting to me	3.77	1.040	1.8	30.1
NQPPF08	I felt emotionally stable	4.01	0.961	2.0	35.8
NQPPF11	I felt confident	3.80	1.015	2.2	28.6
NQPPF12	I felt hopeful	4.01	0.965	2.2	36.6
NQPPF13	I had a good life	3.98	1.017	2.4	37.6
NQPPF14	I had a sense of well-being	3.85	1.007	2.1	30.8
NQPPF15	My life was satisfying	3.70	1.027	2.8	24.7
NQPPF16	I had a sense of balance in my life	3.61	1.053	3.1	24.0
NQPPF17	My life had meaning	3.99	1.083	2.9	42.8
NQPPF18	My life was peaceful	3.61	1.046	3.5	22.2
NQPPF19	My life was worth living	4.48	0.842	1.4	65.2
NQPPF20	My life had purpose	4.08	1.070	2.8	47.3
NQPPF21	I was living life to the fullest	3.45	1.218	7.0	25.5
NQPPF22	I felt cheerful	3.74	0.928	1.4	22.5
NQPPF23	In most ways my life was close to my ideal	2.89	1.211	15.9	10.9
NQPPF24	I had good control of my thoughts	4.05	0.919	1.7	36.0
NQPPF26	Even when things were going badly, I still had hope	4.16	0.929	1.4	44.9
PPF_29	I was optimistic about the future	3.78	1.080	3.2	31.4
PPF_30	I thought positively about my future	3.91	1.059	3.1	36.5
PPF_32	I was thankful to be alive	4.48	0.881	1.5	67.0
PPF_33	I was proud of everything that I have overcome	4.13	0.982	1.7	45.8
PPF_34	I had a positive attitude about living with my injury	3.87	1.040	3.5	32.0

*Context for all items was: ‘Lately’. Response set was: 1 = Never/2=Rarely/3 = Sometimes/4 = Often/5 = Always.

Bold Font indicates the items selected for the short form 10a.

With the exception of item NQPPF01, all items beginning with ‘NQPPF’ are final Neuro-QOL PAWB items.

SCI-QOL Items and parameters copyright ©2015 David Tulsky and Kessler Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Neuro-QOL items copyright ©2015 David Cella. All Items and Scales should be accessed and used through the corresponding author or http://www.assessmentcenter.net. Do not modify items without permission from the copyright holder.

Figure 1. SCI-QOL positive affect & well-being item bank information and precision.

Table 3. Positive affect and well-being items and item bank parameters

Item ID	Item Stem	Item Response Theory Calibration Statistics
		Slope	Threshold 1	Threshold 2	Threshold 3	Threshold 4
NQPPF01	I felt happy about the future	3.95301	−1.14949	−0.53845	0.22284	0.87856
NQPPF02	I was able to enjoy life	3.54867	−1.49391	−0.77118	−0.01380	0.82889
NQPPF03	I felt a sense of purpose in my life	4.04474	−1.30455	−0.66602	0.00531	0.62264
NQPPF04	I could laugh and see the humor in situations	2.34125	−2.18607	−1.34873	−0.38393	0.65077
NQPPF05	I was able to be at ease and feel relaxed	2.62732	−1.56956	−0.70503	0.26616	1.14028
NQPPF06	I looked forward with enjoyment to upcoming events	3.20216	−1.68157	−0.79648	−0.03707	0.71524
NQPPF07	Many areas of my life were interesting to me	3.16476	−1.57612	−0.68029	0.18464	0.90224
NQPPF08	I felt emotionally stable	2.74422	−1.66864	−1.03842	−0.18287	0.76859
NQPPF11	I felt confident	3.06251	−1.52046	−0.75344	0.10620	0.95162
NQPPF12	I felt hopeful	3.79944	−1.35445	−0.96665	−0.09410	0.70839
NQPPF13	I had a good life	3.61491	−1.39578	−0.79674	−0.04910	0.69237
NQPPF14	I had a sense of well-being	3.61408	−1.43705	−0.75512	0.06521	0.87276
NQPPF15	My life was satisfying	3.67461	−1.31124	−0.61968	0.20983	1.02506
NQPPF16	I had a sense of balance in my life	3.44348	−1.30183	−0.58562	0.32749	1.05953
NQPPF17	My life had meaning	4.01958	−1.23286	−0.69150	0.01161	0.57683
NQPPF18	My life was peaceful	2.26219	−1.57107	−0.75030	0.27463	1.24068
NQPPF19	My life was worth living	3.68923	−1.58122	−1.24680	−0.57849	0.08843
NQPPF20	My life had purpose	3.88416	−1.28004	−0.75537	−0.07167	0.47673
NQPPF21	I was living life to the fullest	3.18129	−0.94064	−0.26560	0.45139	1.04140
NQPPF22	I felt cheerful	3.33932	−1.65641	−0.85367	0.16288	1.11203
NQPPF23	In most ways my life was close to my ideal	2.26028	−0.65162	0.02829	0.93254	1.78892
NQPPF24	I had good control of my thoughts	2.25262	−1.95111	−1.32336	−0.28170	0.81310
NQPPF26	Even when things were going badly, I still had hope	2.83023	−1.80193	−1.20679	−0.29079	0.55586
PPF_29	I was optimistic about the future	2.62517	−1.46749	−0.76172	0.11161	0.89749
PPF_30	I thought positively about my future	4.54921	−1.16245	−0.64926	0.06604	0.69873
PPF_32	I was thankful to be alive	3.72859	−1.55655	−1.14642	−0.47812	0.05993
PPF_33	I was proud of everything that I have overcome	2.68008	−1.76538	−1.06275	−0.22474	0.52363
PPF_34	I had a positive attitude about living with my injury	2.97887	−1.36136	−0.83589	−0.02627	0.85965

*Context for all items was: ‘Lately’. Response set was: 1 = Never/2 = Rarely/3 = Sometimes/4 = Often/5 = Always.

Bold Font indicates the items selected for the short form 10a.

With the exception of item NQPPF01, all items beginning with ‘NQPPF’ are final Neuro-QOL PAWB items.

SCI-QOL Items and parameters copyright © 2015 David Tulsky and Kessler Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Neuro-QOL items copyright © 2015 David Cella. All Items and Scales should be accessed and used through the corresponding author or http://www.assessmentcenter.net. Do not modify items without permission from the copyright holder.

Figure 2. SCI-QOL PAWB: Measurement Reliability by T-score and assessment method.

Table 4. Accuracy of variable- and fixed-length CAT and 10-item short form: correlations with full-bank score

Mode	N	# Items Admin			Max	%Min	%Max	Correlation with full bank
		Mean	SD	Min
Variable-length CAT (min 4)	717	5.10	2.38	4	12	73.32%	8.80%	0.950
Variable-length CAT (min 8)	717	8.39	1.17	8	12	89.53%	9.22%	0.975
10-item fixed-length CAT	717	N/A	N/A	10	10	N/A	N/A	0.981
10-item short form	717	N/A	N/A	10	10	N/A	N/A	0.976

Table 5. Breadth of coverage for variable length CAT, fixed length CAT, 10-item short form, and full item bank

Mode	N	T Score				Standard Error
		Mean±SD	Range	% Ceiling	% Floor	Mean±SD	Range
Variable-length CAT (min 4)	716	54.35 ± 7.94	26.66–72.23	3.49%	0.14%	0.251 ± 0.0517	0.202–0.462
Variable-length CAT (min 8)	716	54.43 ± 7.92	26.66–72.23	3.49%	0.14%	0.203 ± 0.0672	0.148–0.462
10-item fixed-length CAT	716	54.46 ± 7.95	23.27–71.86	4.47%	0.14%	0.191 ± 0.0759	0.134–0.467
10-item short form	716	54.41 ± 7.70	26.7–68.6	9.92%	0.14%	0.213 ± 0.0946	0.140–0.480
Full bank	716	54.49 ± 7.92	28.2–73.2	3.07%	0.14%	0.139 ± 0.0714	0.100–0.450

Table 6. Raw score to T-score conversion table for PAWB SF10a

Raw score	T-score	Standard error
10	26.7	4.1
11	30.5	2.7
12	32.2	2.4
13	33.5	2.1
14	34.6	1.9
15	35.5	1.8
16	36.3	1.8
17	37.1	1.7
18	37.8	1.7
19	38.5	1.7
20	39.2	1.6
21	39.9	1.6
22	40.6	1.6
23	41.2	1.6
24	41.9	1.6
25	42.5	1.6
26	43.2	1.7
27	43.9	1.7
28	44.6	1.7
29	45.3	1.7
30	46.0	1.7
31	46.7	1.7
32	47.4	1.7
33	48.1	1.7
34	48.9	1.7
35	49.6	1.7
36	50.3	1.7
37	51.1	1.7
38	51.8	1.7
39	52.6	1.7
40	53.3	1.7
41	54.1	1.7
42	55.0	1.8
43	55.8	1.8
44	56.8	1.9
45	57.8	2.0
46	58.9	2.1
47	60.2	2.2
48	61.8	2.5
49	63.9	3.0
50	68.6	4.7