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Development and preliminary assessment of the measurement properties of the Seating Identification Tool (SIT)1

School of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of British Columbia and Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, London, Ontario, Canada

Francine Miller

Access Community Therapists, Vancouver, British Columbia, London, Ontario, Canada

Karen Trenholm

St. Joseph's Health Care, Parkwood Hospital Wheelchair and Seating Program, London, Ontario, Canada

Desiree Grant

Community Advantage Rehabilitation, Toronto, London, Ontario, Canada

Kristen Goodman

St. Joseph's Health Care, Parkwood Hospital Wheelchair and Seating Program, London, Ontario, Canada

Objective: To present and discuss the development and measurement properties of the Seating Identification Tool (SIT), a screening tool designed to identify the need for formal seating and wheelchair intervention among institutionalized elderly. Specifically, investigation of the inter-rater and test–retest reliability, sensitivity, specificity, the positive and negative predictive values of the SIT was conducted.

Design: A two-week retest design.

Setting: A long-term care facility in London, Ontario, Canada.

Subjects: Forty-two randomly selected residents with an average age of 83 years who had a disability and required the use of a wheelchair as their main mode of mobility.

Intervention: Two health care assistants from a long-term facility collected data using the SIT. One rater assessed all subjects two weeks later to evaluate test–retest reliability. Diagnostic properties (validity) were determined by having all subjects assessed by a seating therapist.

Main measurement: The SIT and formal evaluation by a therapist experienced in seating.

Results: The ICC for both test–retest and inter-rater reliability was 0.83. A cut-off score of 2 maximized the sensitivity (100%) and specificity (64% and 57% for raters 1 and 2 respectively) and the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (0.855 and 0.862 for raters 1 and 2). The positive and negative predictive values ranged from 82 to 100%.

Conclusion: The SIT is a quick, easy to use, reliable and valid screening tool that can be used to facilitate clinical referral for formal intervention. Other potential uses include population-based surveys to estimate the need for including seating intervention in strategic planning for the institutionalized elderly.

Clinical Rehabilitation, Vol. 18, No. 3, 317-325 (2004)
DOI: 10.1191/0269215504cr729oa


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