Validation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Van Lieshout test in an Italian population with cervical spinal cord injury: a psychometric study.

Study design: Psychometric study.

Objective: To assess the reliability and validity of the Italian-translated and adapted version of the Van Lieshout test (VLT) in a population of people with cervical spinal cord injury (C-SCI).

Setting: Multicenter study in multiple hospitals in Italy.

Methods: The original scale was translated from English to Italian according to international guidelines. The internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and responsiveness of the Italian version of the VLT (IT-VLT) were examined. The IT-VLT was administered to 50 individuals with C-SCI, and its construct and convergent validity were evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficients with the Italian version of the Spinal Cord Injury Measure version III (SCIM III).

Results: All psychometric properties of the IT-VLT showed significant values, including the Cronbach's α , which was 0.95 (left hand) and 0.94 (right hand). Furthermore, the test-retest reliability showed an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.89, 0.81, and 0.87 for the right hand, left hand, and total value, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient of the IT-VLT and the Italian version of the SCIM III showed all significant results r  = 0.559 ( p  < 0.01). The IT-VLT score improved significantly during in-patient rehabilitation In fact the mean (95% CI) change between T0 and T1 was - 13.2 ± 28.6 (- 21.38; - 5.10).

Conclusions: The IT-VLT was a reliable and a valid outcome measure for assessing hand function in the Italian population with C-SCI. The present study lays the grounds to investigate the psychometric properties of the short version of the IT-VLT.