Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM)

The SCIM measures independence specifically for people with spinal cord injury. General functional measures were built for mixed rehabilitation populations and miss things that dominate life after SCI — breathing support, bladder and bowel management, wheelchair skills.

Nineteen items sit in three areas. Self-care covers feeding, bathing, dressing, and grooming, scored 0 to 20. Respiration and sphincter management covers breathing, bladder, bowel, and toilet use, scored 0 to 40. Mobility covers bed mobility and transfers, moving around the room and toilet, and getting about indoors and outdoors, scored 0 to 40. Items are weighted by clinical importance, and the total runs 0 to 100.

Licensing Notes: The measure is reproduced in the published literature and clinical resources without a posted fee.

Learn More: A self-report version (SCIM-SR) exists and correlates highly with the clinician-rated version (r = 0.87 for the total). But the two are not interchangeable: patients consistently rate themselves higher than clinicians do, with a mean difference of about 5 points on the total and the gap largest in mobility.