An evaluation of the hemiplegic patient based on the Bobath approach: a reliability study

The intra- and inter-rater reliability of a motor function evaluation of stroke patients, based on the Bobath approach, was studied. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to determine the degree of agreement between repeated measurements on the same patient taken by the same rater and between measurements taken by three raters on the same patient. In the intra-rater study, each of 19 patients was evaluated in three different sessions by one of 19 raters. In the inter-rater study 18 patients were each evaluated by three different raters. The intra-rater data were highly reliable, with ICCs of 0.95 and 0.97 for the upper and lower limbs respectively. For the inter-rater study, the ICCs were 0.79 and 0.77 for the upper and lower limbs respectively. It can therefore be concluded that this instrument, previously demonstrated to quantify patient progress, is also reliable both in intra- and inter-rater dimensions.