Article

One of the problems that arise in spinal cord injury (SCI) is
alteration in trunk control. Despite the need for standardized scales, these do
not exist for evaluating trunk control in SCI. OBJECTIVE: To propose and validate
a trunk control test in individuals with SCI. SETTING: National Institute of
Rehabilitation, Mexico. METHODS: The test was developed and later evaluated for
reliability and criteria, content, and construct validity. RESULTS: We carried
out 531 tests on 177 patients and found high inter- and intra-rater reliability.
In terms of criterion validity, analysis of variance demonstrated a statistically
significant difference in the test score of patients with adequate or inadequate
trunk control according to the assessment of a group of experts. A receiver
operating characteristic curve was plotted for optimizing the instrument's cutoff
point, which was determined at 13 points, with a sensitivity of 98% and a
specificity of 92.2%. With regard to construct validity, the correlation between
the proposed test and the spinal cord independence measure (SCIM) was 0.873
(P=0.001) and that with the evolution time was 0.437 (P=0.001). For testing the
hypothesis with qualitative variables, the Kruskal-Wallis test was performed,
which resulted in a statistically significant difference between the scores in
the proposed scale of each group defined by these variables. CONCLUSION: It was
proven experimentally that the proposed trunk control test is valid and reliable.
Furthermore, the test can be used for all patients with SCI despite the type and
level of injury.

Langue : ANGLAIS