P.10.6 Reliability and validity of trunk assessment methods in neuromuscular disease

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the reliability and validity of trunk control test (TCT) and trunk impairment scale (TIS) in people with adult neuromuscular diseases (NMD). 66patients participated to the study. TCT, TIS, Manual Muscle Test (trunk, upper and lower extremities), Motor Function Measurement (MFM), Functional Independency Measurement (FIM) and Rivermead Mobility Index (RMI) were applied to the participants. Test–retest and item total reliability, construct validity and concurrent validity were assessed both of TIS and TCT. Both TIS and TCT Intraclass correlation and test re-test agreement were high (0.96 and 0.98 for TIS and 0.97 and 0.98 for TCT). Correlation between TIS and FIM, MFM, hip and trunk muscle strength scores were significant (<i>r</i>=0.30, <i>p</i><0.05), (<i>r</i>=0.29, <i>p</i><0.01), (<i>r</i>=0.34, <i>p</i><0.05), (<i>r</i>=0.59, <i>p</i><0.01) respectively. Also the TCT scores were correlated with MFM score (<i>r</i>=0.57) and trunk muscle strength scores (<i>r</i>=0.61). The cronbachalfa coefficients for TIS was 0.82, for TCT is 0.74. Item total test scores of both TCT and TIS were significant (<i>p</i><0,01). AlthoughTCT and TIS were found to be a valid and reliable methods, we suggest that TIS provide more detailed information about trunk impairment in NMD patients.