Mobility after stroke: Reliability of measures of impairment and disability

Abstract

This paper investigates the reliability of six measures of impairment and disability related to mobility after stroke: the Rivermead Motor Assessment (RMA, gross function subsection); gait speed (over 5 and 10 m); the motricity index (leg scores only); functional ambulation categories; sitting to standing (by observation); and mobility categories. Twenty-five patients who had suffered a stroke 2–6 years earlier leaving them with mobility disability were seen as part of a home-based physiotherapy trial. Assessments were made by three people on three occasions over 5 weeks. All six measures were reliable in statistical terms. A variation in gait speed of up to 25% and a difference of 3 points in the RMA were the actual limits of reliability.

Key Words:

• Stroke
• Mobility
• Reliability
• Measurement

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fiona M. Collen

It is with great sadness that we have to inform the readership of the Journal that shortly after completing the final editorial work on this Special Issue, Professor Kalman Jacob Mann was seriously injured in a car accident and subsequently died.

Professor Mann was responsible for establishing the two Hadassah Hospitals and Community Health Centres in Jerusalem and for the past 20 years headed the Presidium of Yad Sarah, Israel's largest community based, volunteer operated organization which provides a spectrum of free or nominal cost home care services nation-wide.

We offer our condolences to his family and friends, and trust that this Special Issue stands as a testament to his work in the field.