Abstract
Objective: To describe the development and initial psychometric properties of a new outcome measure for health behaviors that delay or prevent secondary impairments associated with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design: Persons with SCI were surveyed during routine annual physical evaluations.
Setting: Veterans Affairs Medical Center Spinal Cord Injury Unit, which specializes in primary care for persons with SCI.
Participants: Forty-nine persons with SCI, aged 19–73 years, 1–50 years post-SCI.
Main Outcome Measure: The newly developed Spinal Cord Injury Lifestyle Scale (SCILS).
Results: Internal consistency is high (α=0.81). Correlations between clinicians' ratings of participants' health behavior and the new SCILS provide preliminary support for construct validity.
Conclusion: The SCILS is a brief, self-report measure of health-related behavior in persons with SCI. It is a promising new outcome measure to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical and educational efforts for health maintenance and prevention of secondary impairments associated with SCI.
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Pruitt, S., Wahlgren, D., Epping-Jordan, J. et al. Health behavior in persons with spinal cord injury: development and initial validation of an outcome measure. Spinal Cord 36, 724–731 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.sc.3100649
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.sc.3100649
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