Cross-cultural validation of a Brazilian version of the adapted manual wheelchair circuit (AMWC-Brazil).

PURPOSE: To translate, culturally adapt and validate the Adapted Manual Wheelchair Circuit (AMWC) into Brazilian-Portuguese.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

METHODS: Sixty-six men (median age of 30.5 years [percentiles 25 and 75: 24.0; 38.3 years]) with traumatic spinal cord injury were consecutively enrolled and divided into two groups: tetraplegia (TP) and paraplegia (PP). The participants performed the AMWC-Brazil and were evaluated by the Spinal Cord Injury Measure version III (SCIM-III). Translation, translation synthesis, back-translation, committee review and construct validity were adopted for the cross-cultural adaptation. Construct validity was performed by testing whether the test scores were significantly correlated (Spearman's correlation coefficient) to the subjects' injury level, age, time since injury, body mass index (BMI) and SCIM-III scale.

RESULTS: All the AMWC-Brazil's outcomes were significantly correlated with SCIM-III total score and subscales (P ≤ 0.01). However, when the analyses were stratified over injury level, only the TP showed a high correlation between the AMWC-Brazil's outcomes and the SCIM-III. For construct validity, 4 of 5 hypotheses were confirmed. Only BMI was not a significant predictor of the AMWC-Brazil outcomes.

CONCLUSION: The AMWC was successfully translated to the Brazilian-Portuguese (AMWC-Brazil) and presented high and satisfactory construct validity.