Cultural Adaptation, Validity and Reliability of The Turkish Version of The Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire (WST-Q) 5.0 Form in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury

Year 2023, Volume: 40 Issue: 3, 460 - 465, 30.09.2023

Ebru Kanık , Ferruh Taşpınar , Hakan Gülmez , Betül Taşpınar

Abstract

Paraplegic individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) use a wheelchair to move around. The level of independence they have in the community is related to their wheelchair skills. Therefore, wheelchair skills are important for individuals with SCI. To increase the use of manual wheelchairs, it is important to evaluate the skills of wheelchair users. When the literature was examined, we could not find a scale for evaluating wheelchair skills on the Turkish Scale. Thus, this study aimed to determine the validity and reliability of the Turkish cultural adaptation of the Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire (WST-Q) as a questionnaire evaluating the skills of manual wheelchair users in Türkiye. This study was conducted with paraplegic manual wheelchair users. For the reliability of the questionnaire, internal consistency and test-retest reliability were examined. Internal consistency was evaluated with the Cronbach α coefficient. For the validity of the questionnaire, the data obtained from the WST-Q-Turkish were compared with the World Health Organization Quality of Life, Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF). The study was completed with 20 cases with a mean age of 40±8.95 years. The general Cronbach α score of the questionnaire was calculated as 0.985. According to the results, the questionnaire was determined to be reliable. The currently widely used WHOQOL-BREF was used for the concurrent validity of the WST-Q-Turkish. A strong correlation was determined between the WHOQOL-BREF and the WST-Q-Turkish. In this study, the validity and reliability Turkish of the WST-Q form was performed/evaluated and the final form was named WST-Q-Turkish. The WST-Q-Turkish was determined to be a valid and reliable questionnaire for the evaluation of the skill capacity of paraplegic adults with SCI using a manual wheelchair.

Keywords

Spinal Cord Injuries, Paraplegia, Wheelchairs, Questionnaire

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