• The Sacral Sparing Questionnaire is a survey of 5 questions involving various aspects of a patient’s bowel movement routine and what sensation is preserved in the anal area (e.g., can you feel the water temperature when washing, finger insertion during digital rectal stimulation).
  • Each question is answered as: “yes”, “no”, or “N/A”.

ICF Domain

Body Functions ▶ Sensory and Pain

Administration

  • Each item is answered either “Yes”, “No” or “N/A”.
  • The items are assessed individually and are not summarized in a single score.

Number of Items

5

Equipment

None

Languages

N/A

Training Required

No advanced training required.

Availability

Can be found here.

# of studies reporting psychometric properties: 1

Interpretability

MCID: not established in SCI.
SEM: not established in SCI.
MDC: Mean Sensitivity and Specificity values:

  • Q1: Sensitivity: 98%, Specificity: 92%
  • Q2: Sensitivity: 88%, Specificity: 95%
  • Q3: Sensitivity: 98%, Specificity: 94%
  • Q4: Sensitivity: 96%, Specificity: 100%
  • Q5 (w/ increased AST): Sensitivity: 100%, Specificity: 27%
  • Q5 (w/o increased AST): Sensitivity: 89%, Specificity: 98%

(Liu et al. 2017)

Validity

  • High Consistency Test between Sensation and Q1of questionnaire (κ coefficient = 0.91).
  • High Consistency Test between S4-5 Sensation and Q2 of questionnaire (κ coefficient = 0.79).
  • High Consistency Test between Deep Anal Pressure and Q3 of questionnaire (κ coefficient = 0.93).
  • High Consistency Test between Deep Anal Pressure and Q4 of questionnaire (κ coefficient = 0.93).
  • High Consistency Test between Voluntary Anal Compression and Q5 of questionnaire (κ coefficient = 0.70).

(Liu et al. 2017)

Reliability

Not established in SCI.

Responsiveness

No values were reported for the responsiveness of the 5-Item Sacral Sparing Questionnaire for the SCI population.

Floor/Ceiling Effect

No values were reported for the presence of floor/ceiling effects in the 5-Item Sacral Sparing Questionnaire for the SCI population.

Reviewers

Gurmaan Gill.

Date Last Updated

26 February 2019.

Liu N, Xing, H, Zhou M-W. Development and validation of a bowel-routine-based self-report questionnaire for sacral sparing after spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord. 2017;55(11):1010-1015. https://www.nature.com/articles/sc201777

Related Downloads
Back to Listing