An examination of the psychometric properties of the community integration questionnaire (CIQ) in spinal cord injury.

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ) in large samples of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Longitudinal 12-month survey study.

Setting: Nation-wide, community dwelling.

Participants: Adults with SCI: 627 at Time 1, 494 at Time 2.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Outcome Measures: The CIQ is a 15-item measure developed to measure three domains of community integration in individuals with traumatic brain injury: home integration, social integration, and productive activity. SCI consumer input suggested the need for two additional items assessing socializing at home and internet/email activity.

Results: Exploratory factor analyses at Time 1 indicated three factors. Time 2 confirmatory factor analysis did not show a good fit of the 3-factor model. CIQ scores were normally distributed and only the Productive subscale demonstrated problems with high (25%) ceiling effects. Internal reliability was acceptable for the Total and Home scales, but low for the Social and Productive activity scales. Validity of the CIQ is suggested by significant differences by sex, age, and wheelchair use.

Conclusions: The factor structure of the CIQ was not stable over time. The CIQ may be most useful for assessing home integration, as this is the subscale with the most scale stability and internal reliability. The CIQ may be improved for use in SCI by including items that reflect higher levels of productive functioning, integration across the life span, and home- and internet-based social functioning.