• Based on the QIF originally developed in 1980, the QIF-SF was developed to provide a sensitive global functional scale for measuring gains in individuals with tetraplegia during in-patient rehabilitation.
  • It assesses only 6 ADLs instead of 37 in the original version. These items were selected from five of the functional performance categories of self-care and mobility on the QIF in order to reduce item redundancies of the original 37-item version.
  • Items include: wash/dry hair, turn supine to side in bed, lower extremity dressing, open carton/jar, transfer from bed to wheelchair and lock wheelchair.

Clinical Considerations

  • The QIF-SF is more practical to use than the original QIF as the number of items have been reduced.
  • The QIF-SF is designed specifically for the quadriplegic SCI population.

ICF Domain

Activities and Participation ▶ Self-Care

Administration

  • Clinician-administered; interview format
  • Scored on a 5 point scale from 0 (dependent) to 4 (independent).
  • Administration time is 5-10 minutes

Number of Items

6

Equipment

None

Scoring

Scores from the 6 items are summed and scores range from 0 to 24.

Languages

English

Training Required

Does not require advanced training

Availability

The QIF-SF worksheet can be found here.

The file above contains item details and scoring instructions, as well as a ready-to-use worksheet for data collection.

Measurement Property Summary

Number of studies reporting psychometric properties: 4

Interpretability

  • Higher scores indicate greater independence in key ADLs.
  • No cut-points or normative data for the SCI population have been established
  • Published data for the SCI population is available for comparison (see the Interpretability section of the Research Summary sheet).
  • MCID: not established in SCI population
  • SEM: not established in SCI population
  • MDC: not established in SCI population

Reliability – High

Number of studies reporting reliability data: 1

High internal consistency: α = 0.89

(Marino & Goin 1999; n=95; 85 males, 10 females; tetraplegia; mean age (SD): 32.1 (13.2) years; non-ambulatory @ 6 months)

Validity – Moderate to High

Number of studies reporting validity data: 3

  • High correlation with Quadriplegia Index of Function (QIF): r = 0.987 (p = 0.987)
  • High correlation with ASIA Upper Extremity Motor Score (UEMS): ρ = 0.824

(Marino & Goin 1999: N = 95 (85 male), tetraplegia; mean age (SD): 32.1 (13.2); non-ambulatory at 6 months)

  • Moderate correlation with health state related to upper-extremity impairment of participants: r = 0.313 (p = 0.03)

(Snoek et al. 2005: N = 47 tetraplegics (38M, 9F); mean age (SD): 42 (13); mean duration of injury (SD): 11 (9); 44% AIS A, 31% AIS B, 9% AIS C, 16% AIS D)

Responsiveness

Number of studies reporting responsiveness data: 1

There is a significant difference in QIF-SF scores across the 3 measurement times (start of rehab, 3 months after start of rehab, and discharge) for groups C3-C6 and C7-T1.

(Marino & Goin 1999, Spooren et al. 2006)

Floor/Ceiling Effect

No values were reported for the presence of floor/ceiling effects in the QIF-SF for the SCI population.

Reviewers

Dr. Ben Mortenson, Dr. Carlos L. Cano-Herrera

Date Last Updated

December 31, 2024

Angerhöfer C, Vermehren M, Colucci A, Nann M, Koßmehl P, Niedeggen A, Kim WS, Chang WK, Paik NJ, Hömberg V, Soekadar SR. The Berlin Bimanual Test for Tetraplegia (BeBiTT): development, psychometric properties, and sensitivity to change in assistive hand exoskeleton application. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2023 Jan 27;20(1):17. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36707885/

Marino RJ, Goin JE. Development of a short-form Quadriplegia Index of Function scale. Spinal Cord 1999;37:289-296.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10338351

Snoek GJ, Ijzerman MJ, Post MW, Stiggelbout AM, Roach MJ, Zilvold G. Choice-based evaluation for the improvement of upper-extremity function compared with other impairments in tetraplegia. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2005;86:1623-1630. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003999305002327

Spooren AI, Janssen-Potten YJ, Post MW, Kerckhofs E, Nene A, Seelen HA. Measuring change in arm hand skilled performance in persons with a cervical spinal cord injury: responsiveness of the Van Lieshout Test. Spinal Cord 2006; 44: 772-779.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16819555

Related Downloads