Reproducibility of two functional field exercise tests for children with cerebral palsy who self-propel a manual wheelchair

Aim The aim of this study was to examine the testretest reproducibility (reliability and agreement) of the 6-minute push test (6MPT) and the one-stroke push test (1SPT), and construct validity of the 6MPT in children with cerebral palsy (CP) who self-propel a manual wheelchair. Method Seventy-three children and adolescents with spastic CP (51 males, 22 females; mean age 11y 9mo, SD 3y 7mo, range 418y; three unilateral, 70 bilateral) using a manual wheelchair for at least part of the day were recruited from and tested in different rehabilitation settings in the Netherlands and Brazil. Participants were classified as Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) level II (n=7), III (n=36), or IV (n=30). Results Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for distance covered on the 6MPT (mean distance 266.5m, SD 120.6m) and the 1SPT (mean distance 4.5m, SD 2.7m) showed excellent reliability (ICC=0.97) for both tests. There was a significant correlation between the 6MPT and the 1SPT (r=0.73; p