• Developed by experienced clinicians to assess cognitive and self care skills required by individuals with an SCI below C7 to perform self-care.
  • Cognitive and functional skills are measured in eight self-care areas:
    • Bathing/grooming
    • Nutritional management
    • Medications
    • Mobility/transfers/safety
    • Skin management
    • Bladder management
    • Bowel management.
  • The items in the SCAT consider the use of physical assistance as well as assistive devices. The scale for each item is yes/no/not applicable.

Clinical Considerations

  • The SCAT was developed specifically for the SCI patient population whereas many other self-care measures have been developed for a broad range of health conditions.
  • The tool has been used in both the rehabilitation and community setting.
  • However, the SCAT does not appear to be widely used in research.

ICF Domain

Activity ▶ Self-Care

Administration

Interviewer-administered test.

Number of Items

81 (41 cognitive and 40 functional).

Equipment

None

Scoring

  • A cognitive and a functional subscale score can be calculated as well as an overall score, although no details are provided on how to calculate the scores.
  • The items in the SCAT consider the use of physical assistance as well as asistive devices.
  • The scale for each item is yes / no /not applicable.

Languages

English

Training Required

None

Availability

Can be found by contacting the author (SM McFarland) from this study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1292085/

# of studies reporting psychometric properties: 1

Interpretability

MCID: not established in SCI
SEM: not established in SCI
MDC: not established in SCI

No standardized norms are available and no results were reported so it is difficult to make any comparisons.

Reliability

  • Test-retest reliability is High for the SCAT-Functional subscale (r = 0.80-0.86), and Low to High for the SCAT-Cognitive subscale (r = 0.47-0.80) and SCAT total (r = 0.45-0.69).
  • Inter-rater reliability is High for the SCAT-Cognitive subscale (r = 0.69-0.93), SCAT-Functional subscale (r = 0.80-0.92), and the SCAT-Total (r = 0.74-0.93).

(McFarland et al. 1992)

Validity

  • Low Hierarchal regression model of SCAT-Cognitive with predictive value at 6 months following discharge:
    R2 =  0.61
  • Moderate Hierarchal regression model of SCAT- Functional with predictive value at 6 months following discharge:
    R2 =  0.82
  • High Hierarchal regression model of SCAT-Total with predictive value at 6 months following discharge:
    R2 =  0.90
  • RANKING N/A Content for all areas of the scale (over 90% agreement) validated by clinical nurse specialists.

(McFarland et al. 1992)

Responsiveness

No values were reported for the responsiveness of the SCAT for the SCI population.

Floor/Ceiling Effect

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

Reviewer

Dr. William Miller, Kyle Diab, Gita Manhas

Date Last Updated

22 July 2020

McFarland SM, Sasser L, Boss BJ, Dickerson JL, Stelling JD. Self-care assessment tool for spinal cord injured persons. SCI Nursing 1992;9:111-116.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1292085

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