THE SCALABILITY OF THE RIVERMEAD MOTOR-ASSESSMENT IN ACUTE STROKE PATIENTS

Objective: To examine the scalability of the Rivermead Motor Assessmen t with hospitalized acute stroke patients. Design: This was prospectiv e study of hospitalized stroke patients. Subjects: Fifty-one selected stroke patients, including those over the age of 85, were assessed at one, three and six weeks post-stroke using the Rivermead Motor Assessm ent, Coefficients of scalability and reproducibiiity were calculated f or each of the three sections of the Rivermead Motor Assessment at eac h assessment. Results: The items in the gross function and aim section s met scaling criteria at all three assessments-which meant that they were in appropriate order of difficulty. There was an overall increase in the proportion of subjects passing each item at successive assessm ents, suggesting that patients in the study were recovering, The leg a nd trunk section did not meet scale criteria with these acute stroke p atients. Conclusions: We recommend that only the gross function and ar m sections should be used as hierarchical scales with selected acute s troke patients; The leg and trunk section should only be used as an as sessment checklist.