Validity and internal consistency of the French version of the revised Skin Management Needs Assessment Checklist in people with spinal cord injury.

Study Design: Cross-sectional psychometrics study.

Objectives: To determine the construct validity and internal consistency of the revised Skin Management Needs Assessment Checklist (revised SMnac).

Setting: Six spinal cord rehabilitation centers.

Methods: One-hundred and thirty-two community-dwelling individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) were included. Construct validity was assessed by a Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the revised SMnac and several questionnaires: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Ways of Coping Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Braden scale; or clinical variables: educational level, presence of a pressure ulcer (PU), history of multiple PUs, time since injury, and pain.

Results: The study evidenced construct validity with a fair to moderate correlation coefficient between the revised SMnac and Rosenberg scale (r = 0.25; p = 0.03), active coping (r = 0.29; p = 0.001), HADS (r = -0.43; p < 0.0001), and time since injury (r = 0.49; p < 0.0001). The presence of PU and history of multiple PUs were strongly correlated with the revised SMnac score (respectively, p = 0.01 and 0.001). Internal consistency was excellent (α = 0.907).

Conclusion: These results show that the revised SMnac is a valid tool to assess PU self-management in individuals with SCI. Further studies are needed to assess the revised SMnac's responsiveness to change.