Reliability and Validity of Spinal Cord Independence Measure of Mongolian Version (mSCIM)

Aims: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Mongolian Version of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure (mSCIM).Methods: Spinal cord independence measure III (SCIM III) was translated into Mongolian and data collected from 40 patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) were analysed. Reliability and validity were analysed in 30 patients, and the responsiveness was tested in 10 patients at admission to rehabilitation and discharge.Results: Percent agreement and Kappa values between two raters were 83-100% and 0.70-1.00, respectively, in all mSCIM items. Intraclass correlations were shown to be above 0.99 within subscales and total score, and Cronbach’s alpha was above 0.75 aside from the respiration and sphincter subscale. The correlation between mSCIM and motor parts of the Functional Independence Measure (mFIM) was above 0.86 in each rater. The mSCIM showed more responsiveness to functional changes for patients at discharge than mFIM.Conclusions: The SCIM III scale was translated into Mongolian, high inter-rater reliability and validity was shown. In addition, more sensitive to changes in function compared with mFIM. Furthermore, we justified the use of mSCIM in the field of rehabilitation, which might be easier for rehabilitation staff to use, because it is in their mother language.