Measuring Sitting Balance in People with Acute or Subacute Spinal Cord Injury

Function in Sitting Test for people with SCI (FIST-SCI) Inter-rater reliability;; Modified Function in Sitting Test (mFIST) Inter-rater reliability;; Trunk Control Test (TCT) Inter-rater Reliability

People often have poor balance and trunk stability after they have a spinal cord injury, but the ability to maintain an upright position when sitting is important for their function. There is no gold standard assessment to measure this type of balance in people with an acute spinal cord injury. We plan to test three assessments (1. the Function in Sitting Test for people with spinal cord injury (FIST-SCI), 2. the modified FIST (mFIST), and 3. the Trunk Control Test (TCT)), used by physiotherapists in a clinical setting, and identify which assessments are the most valid and reliable assessments for people with acute spinal cord injury. Once identified, the researcher involved in this study will educated clinicians and other researchers on the best assessment to use, helping to improve clinical care and future research studies.