AN INTERRATER RELIABILITY STUDY OF THE FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT MEASURE (FIM+FAM)

There is an increasing demand for measures of outcome to evaluate the effects of rehabilitation interventions for brain injury from clinicia ns, research workers and healthcare providers and purchasers. The Func tional Assessment Measure (FIM+FAM), an expanded derivative of the Fun ctional Independence Measure (FIM), is designed specifically for this purpose for this patient group. This study examined the interrater rel iability of the FIM+FAM between two independent raters, a physician an d a nurse, the subjects being 30 in-patients in a neurological rehabil itation unit. The results show that the inter-rater reliability was go od (kappa values 0.50 to 0.95) for all but one of the 30 items rated o n the FIM+FAM. The exception (with a kappa value of 0.35) was 'adjustm ent to limits'. Higher agreement was found for rating of physical acti vities than for cognitive, communication and behavioural items.