Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 28, 2025
Author Spotlight: Enhancing Upper Limb Rehabilitation in Stroke Patients Through Advanced Robotic and Neuromodulation Technologies
Published on: October 11, 2024
Convergent Validity for the Functional Upper Extremity Levels (FUEL) in Stroke Rehabilitation
Ashley Calajoe1, Rachel Feld-Glazman2, Adrienne Dicembri3
1Ashley Calajoe, OTD, MS, OTR/L, is Occupational Therapist, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, White Plains, NY; afoley33@gmail.com.
Importance:
Research is needed to validate an easy-to-use, functional, evidence-based neurological upper extremity (UE) assessment that requires minimal training.
Objective:
To establish convergent validity for the Functional Upper Extremity Levels (FUEL), a function-based upper limb measure, with the Upper Extremity Fugl-Meyer Assessment (UE-FMA), the gold standard assessment of upper limb recovery poststroke.
Design:
Retrospective chart review of 292 clients with admission and discharge data for the UE-FMA and the FUEL. Correlation statistics were analyzed to determine a relationship between these assessments.
Setting:
Inpatient stroke rehabilitation unit.
Participants:
Clients with a stroke diagnosis admitted to the stroke inpatient rehabilitation unit at a rehabilitation hospital between January 2017 and June 2019.
Outcomes And Measures:
FUEL (a classification system) and UE-FMA (an impairment-based motor recovery assessment of the upper limb recovery poststroke).
Results:
Pearson correlation coefficient yielded a significant positive correlation between the UE-FMA and the FUEL for both initial (r = .929) and discharge (r = .943) scores.
Conclusions And Relevance:
Convergent validity of the FUEL is established using the UE-FMA as a comparison. The FUEL can be applied in neurological rehabilitation to provide a clinical picture of a client's UE function. This research supports the value of the FUEL's application in clinical poststroke care. What This Article Adds: The FUEL is a valid tool to assess the UE in an acute neurological population.
