The wheelchair circuit: reliability of a test to assess mobility in persons with spinal cord injuries.

OBJECTIVE To assess the reliability of a 9-task wheelchair circuit. DESIGN Three test trials per subject were conducted by 2 raters. Inter- and intrarater reliability were examined. SETTING Eight rehabilitation centers in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS Convenience sample of 27 patients (age, >or=18 y) with spinal cord injury (SCI), all of whom were in the final stage of their inpatient rehabilitation. INTERVENTION A wheelchair circuit was developed to assess mobility in subjects with SCI. The circuit consisted of 9 tasks: figure-of-8 shape, doorstep crossing, mounting a platform, sprint, walking, driving up treadmill slopes of 3% and 6%, wheelchair driving and transfer. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Task feasibility, task performance time, and peak heart rates. RESULTS The number of tasks that subjects could perform varied from 3 to 9. Feasibility intrarater reliability was.98, and the interrater reliability intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was.97. Performance time ICCs ranged from.70 to.99 (mean,.88) for intrarater reliability and from.76 to.98 (mean,.92) for interrater reliability. Heart rate ICCs ranged from.64 to.96 (mean,.81) for intrarater reliability and from.82 to.99 (mean,.89) for interrater reliability. CONCLUSIONS The reliability of the wheelchair circuit was good. More research is needed to assess test validity and responsiveness.