Test of Wheeled Mobility (TOWM) and a short wheelie test: a feasibility and validity study

Objective: To assess the feasibility and validity of both the Test of Wheeled Mobility (TOWM) and a wheelie test. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: KU Leuven gymnasium. Subjects: Thirty male manual wheelchair users (age range 23–53 years) with spinal cord injury. Interventions: Participants preformed both tests after completing a personal information form and a ‘Perceived self-efficacy in WM’ scale. The TOWM consists of 30 tasks reflecting functional wheeled mobility. The wheelie test consists of eight tasks measuring the ability to perform a ‘wheelie’ in challenging situations. Main measure: Ability, performance time, qualitative and anxiety scores were assessed. Convergent validity was tested by correlating the TOWM and the wheelie test scores. Construct validity was assessed by testing whether the four scores of both tests are significantly related to perceived self-efficacy in wheeled mobility, time since injury and sport participation. Results: TOWM average total testing time was 24.7 minutes (±5.93) and the wheelie test was 12.62 minutes (±5.08). Convergent validity was confirmed by the positive correlation between the TOWM and wheelie test total ability scores (r = 0.84; P < 0.001), quality scores (r = 0.88) and anxiety scores (r = 0.66). Moderate correlations were found between the total time scores of the TOWM and wheelie test (r = 0.47). Construct validity was confirmed by fair to moderate correlations between both test’s scores with time since injury, self-efficacy and sport participation after injury. Conclusion: The TOWM and the wheelie tests are feasible and valid instruments for assessing manual wheelchair mobility in persons with spinal cord injury.