A New Balance Assessment Tool for Quantifying Sitting Balance in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury; Development, Validity and Reliability of the Sitting Star Excursion Balance Test (SSEBT)

Sitting balance is essential for functional daily activities with certain significance for patients with spinal cord injuries (SCI). Assessment of sitting balance determines the individual's ability to control posture. Independence in daily activities requires appropriate stability in all movement plates. However, no testing protocol or tools have been developed to quantify sitting balance in all reaching directions. Thus, this study aimed to develop a comprehensive sitting balance test and determine the reliability, and validity of the Sitting Star Excursion Balance Test (SSEBT) for this population. 101 patients with chronic SCI participated voluntarily. To examine the reliability and validity of SSEBT, Pearson's correlation coefficient and the interclass correlation coefficient were used at a significant level of p <0.01. The SSEBT was highly correlated with the Modified Functional Test (r = 0.84), indicating the concurrent validity between the two tests. The inter Intra-class Correlation Coefficient was above 0.90, also the Inter-Class Correlation Coefficient for SSEBT was higher than 0.90. The results of this study revealed that SSEBT has good validity and reliability to measure the sitting balance in patients with spinal cord injuries. Therefore, this novel test is recommended for the measurement of sitting balance in this population.Keywords: Sitting Balance, Spinal Cord Injury, Postural Stability, Psychometric