Article

The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility and validity of both the Test of Wheeled
Mobility (TOWM) and a wheelie test. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting : KU Leuven gymnasium. Subjects:
Thirty male manual wheelchair users (age range 23-53
years) with spinal cord injury. Interventions : Participants preformed both tests
after completing a personal information form and a 'Perceived self-efficacy in
WM' scale. The TOWM consists of 30 tasks reflecting functional wheeled mobility.
The wheelie test consists of eight tasks measuring the ability to perform a
'wheelie' in challenging situations. Main measure: Ability, performance time,
qualitative and anxiety scores were assessed. Convergent validity was tested by
correlating the TOWM and the wheelie test scores. Construct validity was assessed
by testing whether the four scores of both tests are significantly related to
perceived self-efficacy in wheeled mobility, time since injury and sport
participation. Results: TOWM average total testing time was 24.7 minutes
(+/-5.93) and the wheelie test was 12.62 minutes (+/-5.08). Convergent validity
was confirmed by the positive correlation between the TOWM and wheelie test total
ability scores (r = 0.84; P < 0.001), quality scores (r = 0.88) and anxiety
scores (r = 0.66). Moderate correlations were found between the total time scores
of the TOWM and wheelie
test (r = 0.47). Construct validity was confirmed by fair
to moderate correlations between both test's scores with time since injury,
self-efficacy and sport participation after injury. Conclusion: The TOWM and the
wheelie tests are feasible and valid instruments for assessing manual wheelchair
mobility in persons with spinal cord injury.

Langue : ANGLAIS