The Czech Fugl-Meyer assessment for post-stroke sensorimotor function: translation and cross-cultural adaptation and validation.

Objective: To ensure wider use of the internationally recommended Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) of sensorimotor function for people with stroke, official translations of the scale are needed. This study aimed to perform a translation and cross-cultural adaptation/validation of the FMA into the Czech language.

Design: Translation and cross-cultural adaptation/validation.

Subjects/patients: Five clinical experts and 1 external expert participated as reviewers; 11 individuals with stroke in the early subacute phase were included in the pilot testing.

Methods: A standardized process using forward-backward translations, expert panel reviews, and pilot testing between and within the raters (inter- and intra-rater reliability) were employed to ensure conceptual, semantic, and operational validity of the new Czech FMA. Agreement between raters was assessed in 11 individuals with stroke on 2 consecutive days at University Hospital Olomouc by using Svensson's rank-based statistics.

Results: Percentage of agreement between and within raters ranged between 70-100% and 55-100%, respectively. Systematic disagreements, found in 7 out of 96 FMA items, were discussed and revised in the final version.

Conclusion: The Czech FMA offers a more unified and standardized assessment of sensorimotor impairment in clinical and research settings. This will improve stroke rehabilitation care and allow for wider international collaboration.