Sickness Impact Profile (SIP)

BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet

Test: Sickness Impact Profile (SIP)

Year: 1976; revised 1981

Domain: Biological, Psychological, Social

Assessment Tool Category: General Health

Variations/Translations: N/A

Setting: Home or clinical

Method of Delivery: Self-administration or interview

Description: The SIP is a generic measure designed to subjectively evaluate the impact of illness/disease on physical and psychosocial functioning. The test consists of two domains (physical and psychosocial) and twelve categories. Physical categories include: ambulation, mobility, body care/movement. Psychosocial categories include: social interaction, communication, alertness behaviour, emotional behaviour, sleep and rest, eating, home management, recreation and pastimes, and employment. Questions are phrased in the present tense, and ask about how the patient is feeling at the time of test administration. Question responses are binary (“Yes/No”) and patients are asked to check items that apply to them (American Thoracic Society, 2007). The test was designed to measure the effectiveness or outcomes of health care (Bergner, Bobbitt, Carter, & Gilson, 1981).

Scoring/Interpretation: Scores can be obtained for individual domains and categories, as well as an overall score. Items are weighted based on a standardized weighting method. The overall score is given as a percentage; a higher score indicates a poorer level of health.

Time to Administer: 20 to 30 minutes

Availability: Copyright held by Johns Hopkins University. Contact Medical Outcomes Trust for information and permission to use.

Software: N/A

Website: http://www.outcomes-trust.org

Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative

VValidity (Quantitative): SIP scores have been compared with other subjective ratings and with clinical assessments; correlation coefficients with the SIP were reported as follows: 0.69 (self-assessment of functional limitation), 0.63 (self-assessment of sickness), 0.50 (clinician’s assessment of limitation), and 0.40 (clinician’s assessment of sickness). SIP scores iave been compared with clinical indicators for patients in various diagnostic groups, including a group of hip replacement patients (correlation = 0.81), a rheumatoid arthiritis group (correlation = 0.66), and a group of hyperthyroid patients (correlation = 0.41). SIP scores have also been compared with 13 other leading health indexes, and correlation was found to be over 0.50 in all cases except that of Katz’s Index for Activities of Daily Living, which had a correlation of 0.42 for a group of long-term care patients. The ability of the SIP to detect change has been tested and an effect size of 0.52 for a group of musculoskeletal patients was reported (McDowell & Newell, 1996).

Reliability (Quantitative): High test/re-test reliability was found to be consistently high, with a correlation coefficient range of 0.88 to 0.92 for overall scores (Bergner, Bobbitt, Carter, & Gilson, 1981). The SIP has high internal consistency, with an alpha coefficient of 0.94 for the overall score of the interview-administered version and 0.81 for the self-administered version. Inter-rater reliabilities have been reported for the overall score: r = 0.92, kappa = 0.87 (McDowell & Newell, 1996).

References:

American Thoracic Society. (2007). Sickness Impact Profile. Retrieved Mar. 30, 2009, from http://www.atsqol.org/sections/instruments/pt/pages/sick.html.

Bergner, M. (1993). Development, testing, and use of the Sickness Impact Profile. In S. J. Walker & R. M. Rosser (Eds.), Quality of Life Assessment: Key Issues in the 1990s (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

Bergner, M., Bobbitt, R.A., Carter, W.B., & Gilson, B.S. (1981). The Sickness Impact Profile: development and final revision of a health status measure. Medical Care, 19(8), 787-805.

Comments: N/A