Research Article

Effects of Seated Postural Stability and Trunk and Upper Extremity Strength on Performance during Manual Wheelchair Propulsion Tests in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury: An Exploratory Study

Table 3

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient () between the clinical, static trunk strength, seated reaching test, and U/E strength outcome measures versus the performance-based timed manual wheelchair tests. For each wheelchair performance test, correlation coefficients highlighted in bold represent the variable entered in its multiple regression analysis (i.e., or ). Note that the proportion of the variance () in the wheelchair performance tests that is predictable from each independent variables can be computed by squaring the value () reported in the present table.

Wheelchair performance tests
Timed 20 m propulsion test (s)Timed slalom test (s)6 min propulsion test (m)
Natural velocityMaximal velocity

Clinical variables
 Age (yrs)0.5990.6390.635−0.504
 Height (m)0.0100.2270.293−0.263
 Weight (kg)−0.371−0.0860.037−0.213
 Body mass index (m/kg2)−0.339−0.244−0.189−0.021

Static trunk strength (Nm/kg)
 Anterior flexion−0.595−0.5810.337
 Extension−0.523−0.465−0.4230.254
 Right lateral flexion−0.287−0.581−0.5590.358
 Left lateral flexion−0.4190.348

Seated reaching test (cm)
 Forward−0.511
 Right lateral−0.283−0.537−0.5510.397
 Left lateral−0.269−0.338−0.3710.413
 Right anterolateral0.054−0.383−0.4080.235
 Left anterolateral−0.228−0.094−0.1610.095

Upper extremity strength (Nm/kg)
 Shoulder
  Flexors
   Strongest side−0.221
   Weakest side−0.266
  Extensors
   Strongest side−0.441
   Weakest side−0.366
  Abductors
   Strongest side−0.195−0.5120.503
   Weakest side−0.234−0.5600.469
  Adductors
   Strongest side−0.360
   Weakest side−0.414
  External rotators
   Strongest side−0.175−0.466−0.551
   Weakest side−0.349
  Internal rotators
   Strongest side−0.007−0.393−0.4560.600
   Weakest side−0.161−0.557−0.5480.496
 Elbow
  Flexors
   Strongest side−0.074−0.488−0.5730.489
   Weakest side−0.092−0.5270.585
  Extensors
   Strongest side−0.2690.649
   Weakest side−0.409
 Handgrip
  Strongest side−0.436
  Weakest side−0.474

Significance set at ; significance set at .