Affiliations: Shriners Hospitals for Children, Clinical Research
Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Christina L. Calhoun, MSPT. Shriners
Hospitals for Children Clinical Research Department, North Broad St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19140, USA. Tel.: +1 215 430 4118; Fax: +1 215 430 4125;
E-mail: ccalhoun@shrinenet.org
Abstract: Objective: The objective of this study was twofold: 1) to evaluate
the reliability of the Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury II (WISCI-II) and
Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM) indoor mobility item (#12) when used
with children with spinal cord injury (SCI) and 2) to examine the concurrent
validity between the WISCI-II and the SCIM indoor mobility item in children
with SCI. Methods: A convenience sample of 10 children with SCI between
4–16 years of age was recruited to complete 2 videotaped trials of ambulation
for 10 meters. Six licensed physical therapists trained in the use of the
WISCI-II and SCIM served as raters; each rater independently scored the
WISCI-II and SCIM indoor mobility item for each of the subjects' two trials by
reviewing the videotape. The viewing and scoring of Trial 1 and Trial 2 were
separated by at least 3 weeks. Inter- and intra-rater reliability was
calculated using Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) and 95% Confidence
Intervals (CI). Concurrent validity was evaluated using the Spearman
Correlation Coefficient (r_{s}). Results: Intra-rater and inter-rater
reliability of repeated WISCI-II scores was high (ICC=0.98, CI=0.95–0.99; ICC=0.97, CI=0.96–0.99,
respectively). Intra- and inter-rater reliability for the SCIM mobility score was equally high (ICC=0.96,
CI=0.95–0.98, ICC=0.97, CI=0.95–0.98). There was strong
correlation between WISCI-II scores and the SCIM indoor mobility item (r_{s}=0.99). Conclusion: In this sample of 10 children and six trained
raters, intra- and inter-rater reliability of WISCI-II scores and the SCIM
mobility indoors scores was high, providing preliminary indication for their
utility with children. The high correlation between the WISCI-II and SCIM
mobility item further supports concurrent validity.
