Feasibility and reliability of a physical fitness tests battery for adults with intellectual disabilities: The SAMU DIS-FIT battery

Abstract

Background: People with intellectual disability (ID) have lower performances in physical fitness (PF) tests than people without ID, a situation that exists during all the life stages. However, the assessment of the PF of persons with ID often uses instruments that were designed for non-disabled people. Aim: To check the reliability and feasibility of 8 PF tests in adults with mild to moderate ID. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with a test-retest design in a maximum interval of 2 weeks with 240 adults (160 men and 80 women) with mild to moderate ID in order to assess the feasibility and reliability of the following 8 tests: body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), the timed up & go test (TUG), the deep trunk flexion test (DTF), the hand grip test (HG), the timed stand test (TST), the 30-s sit-up (SUP) test, and the 6-min walk test (6MWT). The complete battery was called the SAMU-Disability Fitness Battery (SAMU-DISFIT). The psychometric properties of the battery, feasibility, reliability, the standard error of the measurement (SEM) and the minimal detectable change (MDC) were calculated. Results: The TUG, DTF, HG, TST, and 6MWT showed an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) from fair to high reliability. Only the SUP test in men had an ICC lower than 0.7 and high SEM values. Conclusion: The psychometric properties provide robust data on the use of the SAMU DISFIT battery in people with ID and can be considered a useful tool for assessing PF in adults with mild to moderate ID in future research.