ICU Mobility Scale translation to French and validation

The ICU Mobility Scale (IMS) is a valid tool to describe a patient’s mobility in the ICU. The primary objective of this study was to translate IMS into French and assess its inter-rater reliability. Secondary objectives included describing the mobility and suitability of IMS to French practices.

French physiotherapists created a French version of IMS (IMS-FR) through a structured translation process. The English back-translation was validated by the author of the original IMS, confirming the semantic conservation.

Inter-rater reliability was assessed in a multicentric prospective study across six French ICUs. The concordance of six assessors, including physiotherapists, nurses, and physicians was measured through Kendall's W and weighted kappa. A total of 92 patients were included, with a median ICU stay of 5 (2−13) days and median age of 63 (54−82) years. Median IMS-FR score was 1 (0.5−5). Overall inter-rater reliability was excellent, with a Kendall's W of 0.90. Among the same professional group, weighted kappa were 0.80 for nurses, 0.86 for physicians, and 0.97 for physiotherapists. Between different professional groups, weighted kappa were 0.82 for nurses compared to both physicians and physiotherapists and 0.89 for physicians compared to physiotherapists.

An additional form was sent to 30 French physiotherapists to explore the correspondence of IMS-FR classification with their clinical practices. Their ranking of IMS-FR items was well-aligned with the original of IMS.

IMS-FR is available for French ICUs, supporting the implementation of early mobilization strategies and enhancing interdisciplinary communication. Future studies should explore other psychometric properties of the IMS-FR and its impact on rehabilitation practices in ICUs.