Reliability and Validity of the Functional Gait Assessment in Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

Jennifer H. Kahn*, April Ohlendorf, Alison Olsen, Keith E. Gordon

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: There are limited psychometrically sound measures to assess higher level balance in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI). Objectives: To evaluate interrater and intrarater reliability and convergent validity of the Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) in individuals with iSCI. Methods: Twelve participants (11 male, 1 female) 32 to 73 years old with chronic motor iSCI, American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale C (n = 2) or D (n = 10), were included. Participants completed five outcome measures during a single test session including lower extremity motor scores from the International Standards for the Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury, FGA, 10-Meter Walk Test (10MWT), Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury (WISCI-II), and the Spinal Cord Injury Functional Ambulation Profile (SCI-FAP). Results: Inter- and intrarater reliability for the FGA were excellent. Interrater reliability was excellent with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) scores greater than 0.92 (p < .001). Interrater reliability against an expert was also excellent for all raters, with an ICC greater than or equal to 0.92 (p < .01). Intrarater reliability was excellent with an ICC score of greater than 0.91 (p < .002) for all raters. Validity of the FGA with 10MWT was -0.90 (p = .000), FGA with WISCI-II was 0.74 (p = .006), and FGA with SCI-FAP was -0.83 (p = .001). Conclusion: The FGA is a reliable and valid outcome measure to use when assessing gait and balance in individuals with motor iSCI. The FGA provides clinicians with a single tool to utilize across a variety of neurologic diagnoses.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)268-274
Number of pages7
JournalTopics in spinal cord injury rehabilitation
Volume26
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2020

Funding

We thank Stephanie Ferro, DPT, Leslie Klashman, DPT, Larry Frank Jr, DPT, and Ross Nachbi, DPT, for assisting with data collection and analysis. This study was funded by Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences.

Keywords

  • functional gait assessment
  • incomplete spinal cord injury
  • reliability
  • validity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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