Based on the linked source; automatically prepared and checked against the original report.
Study purpose
Researchers translated and culturally adapted the Wheelchair Skills Test-Questionnaire (WST-Q) into Italian for manual wheelchair users. The process used forward and backward translation, expert review, and cognitive debriefing involving wheelchair users and rehabilitation professionals. The study then examined reliability, measurement error, and validity, rather than evaluating a treatment or clinical intervention.
Participants and findings
The study included 74 manual wheelchair users with a mean age of 44.0 years. Internal consistency was high, with Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.96 to 0.97. Test-retest reliability was also reported as excellent, with intraclass correlation coefficients from 0.88 to 0.92. The standard error of measurement ranged from 4.9 to 6.9, while the smallest real difference ranged from 13.6 to 19.3.
Validity and rehabilitation relevance
The researchers reported strong correlations among WST-Q scores and higher scores among participants with more than two years of wheelchair use or previous training. A general linear model found significant effects associated with baseline pathology, wheelchair type, gender, and training, including interaction effects that explained 77% to 89% of score variance. The authors concluded that the Italian questionnaire is suitable for standardised assessment of self-reported manual wheelchair skills in Italian rehabilitation settings.
