What is the relationship between the SF-36® and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) in studies of outcomes of rehabilitation services?
The 1988-1995 SF-36® annotated bibliography includes three publications about the FIM and the SF-36®. (They are identified under FIM in the keyword index.) A fourth paper entitled “Extending the Range of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) with SF-36® Items,” by Heinemann, Segal, Schall and Wright (from the Rehabilitation Foundation in Chicago), presented at the First International Outcome Measurement Conference, May 31, 1996, Chicago, IL, is also informative. Heinemann showed that items from the SF-36® Physical Functioning (PF) scale raised the ceiling (most favorable score) of favorably-scored FIMs for two-thirds of stroke survivors. The FIM lowered the floor (least-favorable score) on the SF-36® PF for one-sixth of those patients. Thus, SF-36® and FIM can substantially improve each other. They also found that: (a) not all FIM items define the same generic PF scale (e.g., bowell/bladder control are disease specific), (b) the FIM worked better with a 3-choice response scale than
