Test–retest reliability of the special interest group on amputation medicine/Dutch working group on amputations and prosthetics mobility scale, in persons wearing a prosthesis after a lower-limb amputation

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the test–retest reliability of the Special Interest Group on Amputation Medicine Mobility Scale/Dutch Working Group on Amputations and Prosthetics, better known as SIGAM/WAP mobility scale, in persons with a lower-limb amputation.

Method: Longitudinal study at the outpatient departments of a rehabilitation center and a university medical center. Persons with a lower-limb amputation, wearing a prosthesis, were assessed at the end of their multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment twice, with a 3-week interval, by the same practitioner. Test–retest reliability was quantified using the intraclass correlation coefficient for agreement.

Results: Eighty persons participated (mean age ± SD, 61 ± 15 years; 61% men; 76% vascular cause of amputation; 70% able to walk >50m). Fifty-one of them rated themselves to be stable with respect to their mobility and their intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.90 (95% confidence intervals 0.84–0.94).

Conclusions: The Special Interest Group on Amputation Medicine Mobility Scale/Dutch Working Group on Amputations and Prosthetics had, at the outpatient departments of a rehabilitation center and a university medical center, excellent test-retest reliability in persons wearing a prosthesis after a lower-limb amputation.

Implications for rehabilitation

• The Special Interest Group on Amputation Medicine/Dutch Working Group on Amputations and Prosthetics Mobility Scale was developed to classify mobility after a lower-limb amputation and wearing a prosthesis.

• The Dutch translation of this mobility scale has excellent test–retest reliability.

Keywords:

• Amputation
• mobility
• prosthesis
• reliability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.