Motor fitness in children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury.

Abstract

This study examined the test-retest reliability of selected motor fitness test items among children with severe traumatic brain injury. A cohort study consisting of two testing session, one week apart. All subjects were recruited from among the former clients of a pediatric rehabilitation center. A convenience sample of 19 subjects, 13 boys and 6 girls aged 8 to 17 years, volunteered to participate. All participants had a diagnosis of a severe traumatic brain injury (X +/- SD = 5.88 +/- 1.71 on the Glascow Coma Scale), had completed a program of physical rehabilitation, and were evaluated at 4.16 +/- 2.61 years after their injury. Performance on twelve motor fitness test items (including flexibility, agility, muscular strength, cardiorespiratory endurance, power, muscular endurance, and coordination) was measured at each of two structured evaluation sessions. No differences (t tests, p < or = .05) were found between the performances on the two testing sessions for any of the variables. The test-retest reliability was established via the intraclass correlation (ICC) and ranged from .84 to .98, indicating "almost perfect" agreement. The data indicate that these motor fitness testing protocols are reliable and applicable to traumatic brain injured children in a clinical setting and can thus be used by therapists to plan future interventions to improve the fitness of this clientele.