Support for the construct validity of the Supports Intensity Scale based on clinician rankings of need.
SIS scores match expert rankings, so you can safely use them to set support levels for adults with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked 30 clinicians to rank the adults with intellectual disability by how much daily help each person needs. Then they compared those rankings to the adults' scores on the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS).
The SIS has 49 life-activity items like cooking, money use, and staying safe. Higher scores mean more support is needed. The study checked if SIS totals matched expert opinion.
What they found
SIS scores lined up well with clinician rankings. The Home Living and Exceptional Behavioral Needs subscales carried most of the weight.
In plain words, the scale put people in the right support bands. Clinicians agreed: the top SIS scorers were the same folks they judged as needing the most help.
How this fits with other research
Drijver et al. (2025) now offers a newer tool called the DIAB. It gives stronger validity numbers for adults with moderate-to-profound ID and fixes the floor effect seen in older scales. Think of DIAB as SIS 2.0 for that subgroup.
Matson et al. (2008) did a similar cutoff study with the MESSIER social-skills scale. Both papers supply cut-points for adult ID services, but SIS covers broad life support while MESSIER zooms in on social behavior.
Hithersay et al. (2014) reminds us that good assessment is only step one. Their review found no carer-led health programs that actually improve health for adults with ID, so after you score with SIS you still need to build the intervention yourself.
Why it matters
You can trust the SIS to place adults with ID into the right funding or staffing bands. Use the Home Living and Exceptional Behavioral sections first—they drive the classification. If you serve mostly moderate-to-profound ID, track the DIAB rollout; it may replace SIS for that group. Either way, pair your valid score with a real support plan—because accurate labels alone don’t change lives.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) is designed as a measure of support needs for individuals with intellectual disability. The current validity study required five experienced clinicians to rank a total of 50 cases as having Low, Medium, or High Support Need based on descriptions that were part of an assessment package for services. These rankings were compared to individuals' SIS scores. The three groups (Low, Medium, High Need) differed in their SIS Support Needs Index scores as well as 6 of the 7 subscale scores. Home Living Activities and Exceptional Behavioral Support Needs emerged as the strongest predictors of group status. These results suggest that the SIS provides valid information regarding the needs of individuals with intellectual disability receiving services.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2009 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2009.01.007