Feasibility and preliminary reliability and validity of remote sitting balance assessments among wheelchair users.

Abou, Libak; Rice, Laura A; Frechette, Mikaela L; Sosnoff, Jacob J

The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility and preliminary validity and reliability of remote sitting balance assessment. Seven wheelchair users (mean age: 42.7 ± 19.74 years) participated in an in-person and remote sitting balance assessment. The assessments were compared to investigate the concurrent validity of the remote assessment. Reliability of remote assessment was evaluated using intraclass coefficient correlation (ICC) and the Bland-Altman. No significant differences were observed between the mean scores of in-person and remote administrations of the clinical tests (P's > 0.05). High to very high agreement was found between in-person and remote assessments (ICC = 0.88-0.982, P < 0.05). The agreement was confirmed by Bland-Altman graph analysis. Preliminary results indicate remote sitting balance assessment is feasible to perform, valid, and reliable.