The Safety Assessment Measure for persons with traumatic brain injury: Item pool development and content validity.

Background: Persons with moderate to severe TBI are at increased risk for unintentional injury or harm in the home and community; however, there is currently no standard measure of safety risk they face now and in the future.

Objective: To develop comprehensive and content valid scales and item pools for assessing safety and risk for persons with moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries.

Method: Qualitative psychometric methods for developing scales and items were used including literature review, item development and revision, focus groups with interdisciplinary rehabilitation staff (n = 26) for rating content validity, and cognitive interviewing of TBI family members (n = 9) for assuring item clarity.