Article

Five-phased reliability and validity study. OBJECTIVES: To develop
and test an assessment tool designed to quantify unilateral hand function in
people with tetraplegia. SETTING: Seven spinal injury units in Australia.
METHODS: The AuSpinal is a new assessment tool comprising seven tasks designed to
quantify unilateral hand function in people with tetraplegia. There were five
phases in this study: (1) development of the AuSpinal; (2) testing the
test-retest and intrarater reliability of repeat ratings of 84 videos as
determined by 13 therapists; (3) testing the interrater reliability and internal
consistency of simultaneous real-life ratings of eight hands as determined by six
therapists; (4) testing the range of scores from cross-sectional data obtained
from 50 hands; and (5) quantifying sensitivity to change from longitudinal data
collected over the course of rehabilitation from 16 hands. RESULTS: The
test-retest, intrarater and interrater reliabilities were high (intraclass
correlation coefficients ranged from 0.79 to 0.98, 95% CI ranged from 0.72 to
1.0) with a Cronbach alpha-value of 0.93. There was a reasonable range in the
scores obtained from the cross-sectional data of the 50 hands (interquartile
range extended from 6 to 14). There was an obvious and marked change in AuSpinal
scores over the course of patients' rehabilitation in 8 of the 16 hands.
CONCLUSION: The AuSpinal provides a quick and reliable instrument to test hand
function in people with tetraplegia. It is useful for people with poor hand
function but requires the addition of more complex tasks for those with good hand
function.

Langue : ANGLAIS