Development of a short version of the motor FIM for use in long-term care settings

To develop a short version of the motor Functional Independence Measure (FIM) for use in long-term care settings.

For model construction, the participants were 398 community-dwelling persons with disability (mean age 79.3 years (SD 10.3)) who were receiving visiting nurse services. For cross-validation, 169 patients with stroke (mean age 78.0 years (SD 11.2)) in the chronic phase and 187 patients with stroke (mean age 63.4 years (SD 12.7)) in the recovery phase.

Model construction and cross-validation study.

The second power of correlation coefficient (R2) was used for agreement analysis between the short and the full version. Cross-validation of the models was estimated with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Five to 7 motor FIM items were selected for the models based on Rasch calibration and consideration of internal consistency. Total motor FIM was estimated with the 6-item and 7-item models with regression analysis, which yielded high correlations with the original 13-item motor FIM score (R2>0.95). Regression formulas derived from the models could estimate total motor FIM scores accurately in the 2 cross-validation samples (ICC > 0.98).

The short version of the motor FIM developed is a useful measure of functional status, not only in long-term care but in the recovery phase rehabilitation settings.