Investigation of a New Motor Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present and describe a motor assessment scale (MAS) for stroke patients and to report on the investigation of two aspects of its reliability. The MAS is a brief and easily administered assessment of eight areas of motor function and one item related to muscle tone. Each item is scored on a scale from 0 to 6. To check interrater reliability, we videotaped five stroke patients while they were being assessed with the MAS. These scores were used as the criterion ratings. Twenty raters then assessed these patients, and their results were correlated with the criterion ratings. We determined test-retest reliability by assessing on two occasions, separated by a four-week interval, 14 stroke patients whose recovery was considered to be stable and by correlating these scores. The MAS was found to be highly reliable with an average interrater correlation of .95 and an average test-retest correlation of .98.

Confiabilidade, compreensão e aceitação da versão em português da Motor Assessment Scale em pacientes com acidente vascular encefálico

“…No significant difference was found in the Kruskal-Wallis test. These figures corroborate the previous studies that found a value of 0.99 in Spearman's correlation coefficient 14 , inter-rater agreement of 95% (68% to 99%) 10 and of 48% to 99% 28 for the English version and ICC between 0.72 and 1.00 for the Norwegian version 12 .…”

“…To achieve that, it is necessary to study the reliability, because if it is poor, the error between different raters or between consecutive tests will increase 24 . Assessment instruments must have suitable levels of reliability 2,6,17,25 to justify its clinical and research use 10 .…”

“…Several motor assessment scales have been developed and can be used by physical therapists 9,10 . However, for clinical use, a scale must satisfy aspects such as time, easy management and scoring, cost and application 9 , in addition to being valid and reliable 11 .…”

“…The aim of the Motor Assessment Scale (MAS) is to determine the motor function of post-stroke patients by means of eight motor tasks: supine to side-lying onto intact side, supine to sitting over side of bed, balanced sitting, sitting to standing, walking, upper arm function, hand movements, and advanced hand activities 10 . Initially, the scale included item 9 (General Tonus), which was deleted due to its poor reliability 12 .…”

“…Initially, the scale included item 9 (General Tonus), which was deleted due to its poor reliability 12 . This scale is easy to manage, provides objective measures 10,13 and has good indicators such as validity [14][15][16] , reliability 10,14,15,17 , sensitivity, simplicity, and clinical relevance 14,[16][17][18][19] . Furthermore, its emphasis on measuring function makes it useful for both research and clinical practice 14 .…”