Introduction: The Client’s Intervention Priorities (CIP)© is a tool for the assessment of self-perceived functioning in daily life situations and for determining intervention priorities. It is based on an anthropological model of human development and disability (Disability Creation Process-DCP). Conceived on principles of active participation, empowerment, and autonomy during neurorehabilitation, the CIP is a person-centred collaborative tool for setting rehabilitation goals with individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). 

Objective: To investigate the concurrent and divergent validity of the CIP tool.

Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. 

Methods: Sixty-four individuals with TBI with a mean age of 39.6 (SD=14.1) years and 4.3 (SD=3.7) months post-injury were recruited at admission to the outpatient TBI rehabilitation program of an interdisciplinary neurorehabilitation centre in Montreal, Canada. The majority were men (57.8%), either single (43.8%) or married (42.2%), having sustained a moderate TBI (45.3%). Using the CIP tool, individuals were asked to judge their degree of functioning in 41 everyday/life situations corresponding to 12 categories (Daily Activities, 21 items: nutrition, fitness, personal care, communication, housing, mobility; Social Roles, 20 items: responsibilities, interpersonal relationships, community life, education, employment, recreation) reflecting the DCP model. A five-point Likert-type response scale ranging from 1- “I do not do it because of my present condition – somebody else does it for me” to 5- “I do it alone, without difficulty” was used. The CIP tool scores (Daily Activities and Social Roles subscales, and the total CIP total score) were calculated. The Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 (MPAI-4) (indices of Ability, Adjustment, Participation, and the MPAI-4 total score, higher scores correspond to lower levels of functioning) was used as the criterion for convergent validity and a composite score of the MPAI-4 addressing associated conditions (i.e., alcohol and drug use, psychotic symptoms, and law violations) was used to estimate divergent validity. 

Results: There was a statistically significant strong negative (as expected) correlation between the total score of the CIP tool and the total score of the MPAI-4 (r = -.56, p < .01). Conversely, the CIP did not show statistically significant associations with a composite score of the MPAI-4 addressing associated conditions (r = -.14, p > .05). The CIP Daily Activities subscale and the Social Roles subscale showed medium to large negative associations with the three subscales of the MPAI-4 (r’s ranging from -.41 to -.55, p < .01).

Conclusions: The CIP tool has strong concurrent and divergent validity in individuals with mild to severe TBI, as shown by its relationships to a widely accepted social participation outcome measure in brain injury. The CIP tool is a theoretically grounded tool with excellent psychometric properties to assist individuals with TBI and their rehabilitation professionals in the self-assessment of life habits and setting of common rehabilitation goals.

Concurrent and divergent validity of the Client’s Intervention Priorities (CIP)© tool in a sample of individuals with traumatic brain injury: preliminary findings on an innovative Canadian instrument