• The Spinal Cord Injury Bladder and Bowel Control Questionnaire (SCI-BBC-Q) aims to measure the individual sensory and motor components of the lower gastrointestinal tract and lower urinary tract function following SCI.
  • The population for intended use of the measure was people with SCI, although it could be used to assess neurogenic lower urinary tract and lower gastrointestinal dysfunction following other aetiologies.

Clinical Considerations

  • It aims to provide a simple, brief, logical, and clinically relevant questionnaire to assess baseline lower urinary tract and lower gastrointestinal tract function, along with changes during inpatient rehabilitation in newly injured patients with SCI.
  • It has been developed using the lower urinary tract and lower gastrointestinal tract questions from the International Standards to document Autonomic Function following SCI (ISAFSCI) as a starting point.
    • As many people with SCI manage their lower urinary tract and lower gastrointestinal tract with methods other than normal micturition or defecation (e.g., reflex triggering, catheterizations, or colostomy use), the measure was designed to be used in conjunction with the International SCI Lower Urinary Tract and Bowel Function Basic Data Sets standardized lists of emptying methods.

ICF Domain

Body Functions ▶ Digestive, Metabolic and Endocrine

Administration

  • Can be interview-administered or self-reported.
  • Administration time is 5-6 minutes approximately.

Number of Items

6 items:

  • 3 lower urinary tract questions.
  • 3 lower gastrointestinal questions.

Equipment

N/A

Scoring

  • Questions are answered with “yes” (score = 2), “yes, but…” (score = 1), “no” (score = 0), or “cannot be determined” (not scored).
    • *The “cannot be determined” choice should only be selected if the individual cannot make a “best guess” whether the answer is “Yes” or “No” or otherwise answer the question.
  • Scoring of the ordinal data was intended to be modular, with separate calculations for lower urinary tract and lower gastrointestinal tract function and the ability to combine lower gastrointestinal tract and lower urinary tract scores into a composite score.

Languages

English

Training Required

None

Availability

Can be found in the following article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39315719/

Measurement Property Summary

# of studies reporting psychometric properties: 1

Interpretability

  • Higher scores (12) on the SCI-BBC-Q indicate normal lower urinary tract and lower gastrointestinal function.
  • MCID: not established in SCI
  • SEM: not established in SCI
  • MDC: not established in SCI

Reliability – High

  • Internal consistency is High (Cronbach’s a = 0.73).
  • Test-retest reliability is High (Total ICC = 0.95).

(Bryce et al. 2025; N=51, 35 males, 16 females; mean (SD) age: 49 (19) years; 32 cervical SCI, 13 thoracic SCI, 4 lumbar/sacral SCI; 5 ASIA A, 8 ASIA B, 17 ASIA C, 18 ASIA D; mean time since injury = 2 months)

Validity – Low to Moderate

  • Moderate Correlation between the SCI-BBC-Q and AIS:
    r = 0.41
  • Moderate Correlation between changes in SCI‐BBC‐Q and changes in SCIM‐III bladder management scores from admission to discharge:
    rs = 0.40, p = 0.048
  • Low Correlation between baseline SCI-BBC-Q and the baseline ISNCSCI S4-5 sensory scores:
    rs = 0.36, p = 0.01
  • Low Correlation between SCI‐BBC‐Q score changes and the ISNCSCI S4‐5 sensory score changes between admission and discharge:
    rs = 0.39, p = 0.02

(Bryce et al. 2025; N=51, 35 males, 16 females; mean (SD) age: 49 (19) years; 32 cervical SCI, 13 thoracic SCI, 4 lumbar/sacral SCI; 5 ASIA A, 8 ASIA B, 17 ASIA C, 18 ASIA D; mean time since injury = 2 months)

Responsiveness

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

Floor/Ceiling Effect

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

Reviewers

Dr. Carlos L. Cano Herrera, Matthew Querée

Date Last Updated

31 December 2024

Bryce TN, Tsai CY, Wecht JM, Spielman L. Development and Testing of the Spinal Cord Injury Bladder and Bowel Control Questionnaire (SCI-BBC-Q). Neurourol Urodyn. 2025 Jan;44(1):109-116. doi: 10.1002/nau.25589. Epub 2024 Sep 24. PMID: 39315719.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39315719/

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