Department of Physical Therapy Faculty Articles
Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Sensorimotor Function After Stroke: Standardized Training Procedure for Clinical Practice and Clinical Trials
Publication Title
Stroke
Publisher
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
ISSN
1524-4628
Publication Date
2-2011
Keywords
Middle Aged, Physical Therapy Modalities, Prospective Studies, Psychomotor Performance, Recovery of Function, Single-Blind Method, Stroke, Treatment Outcome
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
Outcome measurement fidelity within and between sites of multi-site, randomized, clinical trials is an essential element to meaningful trial outcomes. As important are the methods developed for randomized, clinical trials that can have practical utility for clinical practice. A standardized measurement method and rater training program were developed for the total Fugl-Meyer motor and sensory assessments; inter-rater reliability was used to test program effectiveness.
METHODS:
Fifteen individuals with hemiparetic stroke, 17 trained physical therapists across 5 regional clinical sites, and an expert rater participated in an inter-rater reliability study of the Fugl-Meyer motor (total, upper extremity, and lower extremity subscores) and sensory (total, light touch, and proprioception subscores) assessments.
RESULTS:
Intra-rater reliability for the expert rater was high for the motor and sensory scores (range, 0.95-1.0). Inter-rater agreement (intraclass correlation coefficient, 2, 1) between expert and therapist raters was high for the motor scores (total, 0.98; upper extremity, 0.99; lower extremity, 0.91) and sensory scores (total, 0.93; light touch, 0.87; proprioception, 0.96).
CONCLUSIONS:
Standardized measurement methods and training of therapist assessors for a multi-site, rehabilitation, randomized, clinical trial resulted in high inter-rater reliability for the Fugl-Meyer motor and sensory assessments. Poststroke sensorimotor impairment severity can be reliably assessed for clinical practice or rehabilitation research with these methods.
DOI
10.1161/STROKEAHA.110.592766
Volume
42
Issue
2
First Page
427
Last Page
432
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
NSUWorks Citation
Sullivan, Katherine J.; Tilson, Julie K.; Cen, Steven Y.; Rose, Dorian K.; Hershberg, Julie; Correa, Anita; Gallichio, Joann PT, DSc, NCS; McLeod, Molly; Moore, Craig; Wu, Samuel S.; and Duncan, Pamela W., "Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Sensorimotor Function After Stroke: Standardized Training Procedure for Clinical Practice and Clinical Trials" (2011). Department of Physical Therapy Faculty Articles. 11.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_pt_facarticles/11
