The development and reliability testing of the Functional Lower-Limb Amputee Gait Assessment

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Science
• Biomechanics
• Prosthetics and Orthotics

Background:

• Assessing gait deviations in individuals with lower limb amputation is crucial for effective rehabilitation.
• Standardized tools are needed to ensure consistent evaluation across different clinicians.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop the Functional Lower-Limb Amputee Gait Assessment.
• To evaluate the reliability of this assessment among physical therapists and certified prosthetists.
• To determine the agreement of assessment results between these two professional groups.

Main Methods:

• A reliability study was conducted using the Functional Lower-Limb Amputee Gait Assessment.
• Five physical therapists and five certified prosthetists evaluated the gait of individuals with unilateral lower limb amputation.
• Kappa statistic was employed to analyze intra-rater and inter-rater reliability.

Main Results:

• High intra-rater reliability (moderate to almost perfect agreement) was observed for most gait deviations within each professional group.
• Inter-rater reliability varied, with moderate to substantial agreement found for several gait deviations in both physical therapists and certified prosthetists.
• Three specific gait deviations demonstrated moderate agreement between the two professional groups.

Conclusions:

• The Functional Lower-Limb Amputee Gait Assessment demonstrates good intra-rater reliability, indicating stability over time when used by the same clinician.
• Certain gait deviations are reliable for inter-rater use within physical therapists and certified prosthetists, and some are reliable across both professions.
• The assessment can aid communication and collaboration between physical therapists and prosthetists for optimizing patient treatment plans.