• Assesses the impact of spasticity on daily life in people with SCI.
  • Requires participants to recall their past 7 days when rating spasticity on a scale ranging from -3 (extremely problematic) to +3 (extremely helpful).

Clinical Considerations

  • The SCI-SET can be used as a tool for medical management decisions as well as a measurement of current treatment effects.
  • Spasticity is known to be highly variable, fluctuating on a daily and even hourly basis. A seven day recall of the impact of spasticity may be overshadowed by current levels of spasticity. Repeated administration may therefore be necessary to provide a more accurate picture of the impacts spasticity has on daily life.
  • The SCI-SET was developed specifically for the SCI population.
  • The scale is easy to administer and score. Definitions of ‘spasm’ and the scale responses are clearly outlined in the instructions.

ICF Domain

Body Function ▶ Neuromusculoskeletal & Movement-related Functions and Structures

Administration

  • Self-report questionnaire.
  • Can be administered in person or over the phone.

Number of Items

35

Equipment

None

Scoring

Total score (-3 to +3) is generated by summing all the responses from the applicable items then dividing the sum by the number of applicable items.

Languages

English

Training Required

No advanced training required.

Availability

Can be found here.

# of studies reporting psychometric properties: 4

Interpretability

  • No meaningful cut points or norms have been established for the SCI population
  • Published data is available for comparison (see Interpretability section of the Research Summary sheet).

MCID: not established in SCI.
SEM: 0.17-0.30
MDC: 0.47-0.82

(Adams et al. 2007; Ansari et al. 2017)

Reliability

  • The SCI-SET was administered 3 times, 3 weeks in a row, on the same day of the week.
  • Internal consistency of the SCI-SET is high (Cronbach’s a = 0.862-0.95), as is the test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.80-0.91).
  • There is moderate to high test-retest reliability for transfer-related variables (rho = 0.656-0.846).

(Adams et al. 2007; Akpinar et al. 2017; Ansari et al. 2017; Tibbett et al. 2019)

Validity

  • The SCI-SET score has high positive and negative correlations between SCI-SET scores and Self-assessment of Spasticity Impact (r = -0.61), Quality of Life Index health and functioning subscale (r = 0.68), and the Penn Spasm Frequency Scale (r = -0.66).
  • The SCI-SET score has moderate positive and negative correlations between SCI-SET scores and Self-assessment of spasticity severity (r = -0.41), self-assessment of spasticity impact (r = -0.47), Self-assessment of Spasticity Severity (r = -0.48).
  • The SCI-SET score has low correlation to the Functional Independence Measure- motor score and PFIM-cognitive subscale (p = 0.13 = 0.21).

(Adams et al. 2007; Akpinar et al. 2017; Ansari et al. 2017)

Responsiveness

No values were reported for the responsiveness of the SCI-SCS for the SCI population.

Floor/Ceiling Effect

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

Reviewers

Dr. Vanessa Noonan, Matthew Querée, John Zhu, Risa Fox

Date Last Updated

3 August 2020

Adams M, Martin Ginis K, Hicks A. The Spinal Cord Injury Spasticity Evaluation Tool: Development and Evaluation. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2007;88:1185-1192.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17826466

Akpinar P, Atici A, Kurt KN, Ozkan FU, Aktas I, Kulcu DG. Reliability and cross-cultural adaptation of the Turkish version of the Spinal Cord Injury Spasticity Evaluation Tool. International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 2017, 40:152–157
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28225536/

Ansari, NN, Kashi M, Naghdi S. The Spinal Cord Injury Spasticity Evaluation Tool: A Persian adaptation and validation study. The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine 2017, 40 (4).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27579622/

Tibbet J, Widerström-Noga EG, Thomas CK, Field-Fote EC. Impact of spasticity on transfers and activities of daily living in individuals with spinal cord injury. The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine. 2019 42:3, 318-327
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29334339/

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