Mapping two measures to the International Classification Of Functioning, Disability and Health and the brief ICF core set for spinal cord injury in the post-acute context

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the extent to which the rehabilitation outcome levels (ROL) and the spinal cord independence measure (SCIM) III could be mapped to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the brief core set for spinal cord injury (SCI) in the post-acute context. Methods: Two professionals used the published protocol to map the concepts derived from both measures to the ICF categories. Further, the endorsed categories at the second level of the ICF were used to determine the coverage of the Brief ICF Core Set for SCI. Results: Three items of the ROL could not be conceptualised within the ICF, while the rest were mapped to 42 second-level categories, mainly to the activity and participation domain. All the items of the SCIM III were mapped, yielding 52 ICF categories, mostly at the third level (32). For the mapping to the Core Set for SCI, the ROL covered five and the SCIM III all nine categories of ‘activities and participation’ included as the candidate categories of the brief version. Conclusion: In terms of content, the ROL appears to be a more global measure of functioning, compared with the SCIM III that covers specific ‘activity’ aspects as proposed in the Brief Core Set for SCI. It is thus recommended that standardised measures, such as the SCIM III, be used due to its conceptual underpinnings and coverage of important aspects.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Rehabilitation professionals should select appropriately validated outcome measures specific to the health condition in order to evaluate the effectiveness of rehabilitation.

• Rehabilitation professional working with outcome measures should be aware of the limitations of measures, in terms of content, and supplement the evaluation with appropriate standardised measures or the use of the Core Sets.

• To enhance evidence-based practise in routine clinical practise, standardised outcome measures should be used.

Keywords:

• Core sets
• ICF
• mapping
• rehabilitation outcome levels
• SCIM III
• standardised outcome measures

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Karin Harms-Ringdahl for her valuable input throughout the writing of this article.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.