The Extended Activities of Daily Living scale: a further validation

The Extended Activities of Daily Living scale was validated as an overall assessment of functional independence in stroke patients discharged from hospital. Analysis of results from 49 patients discharged from a stroke unit and 299 from a trial of domiciliary rehabilitation supported previous work indicating that the four subsections--mobility, kitchen, domestic, and leisure--each formed a unidimensional hierarchical scale. Results also indicated that the scores from the subsections could be added to provide an overall score. The scale is suggested as appropriate for studies evaluating rehabilitation outcome after stroke, and is suitable for postal surveys.