About SFInX

The SFInX is a functional measure to evaluate a person’s shoulder function, or the ability to perform activities in which the arms are involved. Based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), the 13 items cover a range of activities typically done in and around the house, for self-care and keeping the household. The SFInX can be used to evaluate shoulder function in people who are limited in performing their daily tasks because of shoulder problems.

The SFInX is

  • Useful assess the performance on functional activities
  • Practical consists of 13 functional daily activities
  • Quick and Easy can be completed within 7 minutes, and is scored on two or three scoring categories

The SFInX is helpful to

  • Assess shoulder function as the ability to perform activities
  • Describe functioning in daily activities in people with shoulder problems
  • Focus rehabilitation and set realistic and functional treatment goals
  • Track changes in shoulder function during rehabilitation

This website will provide information and training to health care professionals on how to administer the SFInX as an outcome measure during rehabilitation of people with shoulder problems. The SFInX is a performance-based measure, which means that patients have to perform activities to challenge their functional ability. The activities range from easy (drinking from a cup) to harder (washing lower back). The patients’ performance is judged and rated by the assessing clinician.

During its development the SFInX has undergone Rasch analysis which helped creating an interval-level (ruler-like) scale for (unidimensional) measurement of shoulder function.

On this website you will find

The SFInX has been developed in people recovering from a shoulder fracture (proximal humeral fracture), and studies in other patient populations are planned.

The SFInX is freely available to use. We only request that

  • if you plan to use the SFInX, please sent an email to notify us of your intention: a.vandewater@latrobe.edu.au
  • if you used the SFInX, please cite the instrument as:

Van de Water ATM, Davidson M, Shields N, Evans MC, Taylor NF. The Shoulder Function Index (SFInX): a clinician-observed outcome measure for people with a proximal humeral fracture. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2015, 16:31. doi:10.1186/s12891-015-0481-x

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