Article

This study examined inter-rater reliability of the Functional Mobility Scale
(FMS) for children with cerebral palsy (CP) and the presence of rater bias. A
consecutive sample of 118 children with CP, 2-18 years old (mean 10.3 years, SD
3.6), was recruited from a hospital setting. Children were classified using the
gross motor function classification system (GMFCS) with 13 in Level I, 49 in
Level II, 44 in Level III, and 12 in Level IV. Each child was independently
scored on the FMS by two raters. Raters were randomly assigned from a sample of
44 orthopaedic surgeons, hospital-based physiotherapists, and community-based
physiotherapists. Quadratic weighted kappa coefficients for mobility ratings
varied from 0.86 to 0.92 for the three distances, indicating substantial chance
corrected agreement. Levels of agreement were similar when administering the
scale in person and by telephone, suggesting that the FMS can be administered by
either method. There was a tendency for surgeons to rate mobility higher than
physiotherapists, however, only one of the comparisons was statistically
significant. The FMS is a reliable tool that can be used by clinicians to assess
mobility in children with CP.

Langue : ANGLAIS