• 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

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

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

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