Introduction to the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory

The Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory (MPAI) was primarily designed:

• to assist in the clinical evaluation of people during the postacute (posthospital) period following acquired brain injury (ABI), and
  
• to assist in the evaluation of rehabilitation programs designed to serve these people.

Evaluation and rating of each of the areas designated by MPAI-4 items assures that the most frequent sequelae of ABI are considered for rehabilitation planning or other clinical interventions. MPAI-4 items represent the range of physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social problems that people may encounter after ABI. MPAI-4 items also provide an assessment of major obstacles to community integration which may result directly from ABI as well as features of the social and physical environment.

Now in its fourth revision, the MPAI-4 and its three subscales (Ability Index, Adjustment Index, Participation Index) offer measures with highly developed and well documented psychometric properties. These measures may be effectively employed in research applications as well as in clinical settings. The brief 8-item Participation Index may serve as a particularly useful measure of the final common aim—societal participation—of rehabilitation or other intervention efforts.

Throughout its development, the MPAI has been designed for possible completion by professional staff, people with ABI and their significant others (SO). Recent research establishes the reliability of completion by these various rater groups and also documents characteristic biases of each. The MPAI-4 offers the possibility for combining results of the inventory completed by two or three rater groups to provide a potentially more reliable and representative assessment.

The updated edition of the Manual for the Mayo Portland Adaptability (MPAI-4) for Adults, Adolescents and Children is available in print and Kindle eBook formats at Amazon.com. This third edition of the manual contains an overview of the measure, considerations for its administration with adults, adolescents, and children and detailed guidelines for rating each item. The new manual includes a series of helpful hints for rating specific items. The development, psychometrics, and scoring of the MPAI-4, case examples, and updated reference data for converting raw scores to Rasch-derived T-scores are included. This newest edition of the manual also includes an annotated bibliography of 100 studies using the MPAI-4 published through 2022. All profits from the sale of this manual go to the Foundation to Advance Brain Rehabilitation (FABR). 

As requested by the scale author, the MPAI manual is being made available in one downloadable file, rather than breaking it up into the usual COMBI sections (syllabus, properties, references, etc.).

You can download a Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of the MPAI-4 Manual (332k), the MPAI-4 Rating Form (46k), and the M2PI Participation Index Rating Form (23k).

French - There is a French Translation of the MPAI Rating Form (40k).

French Canadian - There is a French Canadian Translation of the MPAI-4 Rating Form (72k), the M2PI Participation Index Rating Form (52k), and the MPAI-4 Manual (263k).

Danish - There is a Danish translation of the MPAI Rating Form (73k).

Spanish - There are Spanish translations of the MPAI Rating Form in Spanish (88K) and the M2PI Participation Index Rating Form in Spanish (48K).

German - There are German translations of the MPAI and M2PI: German MPAI-4 Scoring Worksheet (36K), German MPAI-4 Manual (152K), German MPAI-4 Item List (24K), German MPAI-4 Part A & B (40K), German MPAI-4 Part C (52K), German MPAI-4 Part D (36K), and German M2PI (44K).

Italian - There are now Italian translations of the MPAI: Italian MPAI-4 Scoring Worksheet (181K) and Italian MPAI-4 Manual (430K).

Portuguese - There is now a Portuguese translation of the MPAI Rating Form (128K).

Swedish - There is now a Swedish translation of the MPAI Rating Form (128K).

Dutch - There is now a Dutch translation of the MPAI Rating Form (86K).

Japanese - There is now a Japanese translation of the MPAI-4 Manual (2.2M) and Scoring Worksheet (754K).

Korean - There is now a Korean translation of the MPAI-4 (42K).

(What is PDF and How do I use PDF Files?)

Information regarding the MPAI was contributed by the Mayo Foundation. Please contact James F. Malec, Ph.D., L.P. at for more information.

If you find the information in the COMBI useful, please mention it when citing sources of information. The information on the MPAI may be cited as:

Malec, J. (2005). The Mayo Portland Adaptability Inventory. The Center for Outcome Measurement in Brain Injury. http://www.tbims.org/combi/mpai ( accessed ).