Reliability of and Minimal Detectable Changes in Gait Performance Tests in Patients With Chronic Hemiplegic Stroke

Abstract Purpose: This study aimed to determine the inter- and intra-rater reliability of and minimal detectable changes (MDCs) at the 95% confidence interval in gait performance tests in patients with chronic hemiplegic stroke who can walk independently. Materials and Methods: Thirty patients with chronic hemiplegic stroke (24 men, 6 women, mean age 62.5 ± 11.6 years) were enrolled. Physical therapists (mean clinical experience: 9.1 ± 9.3 years) performed the timed up and go test (TUG), 10-m walk test (10MWT), and 6-min walk test (6MWT) 1 day apart. Reliability was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland–Altman analysis. Results: The ICC was ≥0.9 for all tests, and no systematic bias was found. MDC at the 95% confidence interval was 1.9 s for the TUG, 0.16 m/s for the 10MWT, and 28.4 m for the 6MWT. Discussion: We demonstrated excellent intra- and inter-rater reliability of all tests. These results suggest that gait performance tests are reliable. Conclusion: These commonly used gait performance tests demonstrated high reliability and can be recommended to evaluate clinically meaningful improvements in patients with chronic hemiplegic stroke who can walk independently.