الملخص الإنجليزي
The aims of the study were to examine the reliability and validity of six minutes
walking test (6MWT) in children with intellectual disabilities and to identify its
relationship with anthropometric measurements. 40 students with intellectual
disabilities (Age: 12.1±1.8 years, Height: 136.6±12.0m, Body Mass: 34.5±13.4
) participated in this study. All participants performed Kg, BMI: 18.0±4.9 kg/m2
6MWT twice at least one day apart to study its reliability. They also performed
Countermovement Jump (CMJ) and Free Countermovement Jump (FCMJ) to
examine their relationship to 6MWT. In order to study the Construct validity of
the 6MWT, the participants were divided into two groups according to their
degree of intellectual disability (simple disability = 21 and moderate disability =
19). Results demonstrated an acceptable reliability of the 6MWT through applied
statistical tools (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient= 0.857, Standard Error of
Measurement = 15.8m, Minimum Detectable Change= 43.8m, Limits of
Agreement = 112.9±16.1m). The area under the receiver operating characteristic
(ROC) curve was 0.742 which means that the test has the capacity to distinguish
between students with simple and moderate intellectual disability. Significant
correlations were recorded between 6MWT and both CMJ and FCMJ (r=0.484,
p=0.002; r= 0.417, p=0.007, respectively). On the other hand, no significant
correlation was observed between 6MWT and all the anthropometric
measurements. The findings of the current study indicate the reliability and
validity of 6MWT and the possibility of using it on a widespread level in the field
of the assessment of functional capacity of children with intellectual disabilities.
