scholarly journals Reliability and Validity of the Functional Gait Assessment in Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 268-274
Author(s):  
Jennifer H. Kahn ◽  
April Ohlendorf ◽  
Alison Olsen ◽  
Keith E. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Interrater Reliability ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Intrarater Reliability ◽  
Gait Assessment ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Functional Gait

Background: There are limited psychometrically sound measures to assess higher level balance in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI). Objectives: To evaluate interrater and intrarater reliability and convergent validity of the Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) in individuals with iSCI. Methods: Twelve participants (11 male, 1 female) 32 to 73 years old with chronic motor iSCI, American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale C (n = 2) or D (n = 10), were included. Participants completed five outcome measures during a single test session including lower extremity motor scores from the International Standards for the Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury, FGA, 10-Meter Walk Test (10MWT), Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury (WISCI-II), and the Spinal Cord Injury Functional Ambulation Profile (SCI-FAP). Results: Inter- and intrarater reliability for the FGA were excellent. Interrater reliability was excellent with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) scores greater than 0.92 (p < .001). Interrater reliability against an expert was also excellent for all raters, with an ICC greater than or equal to 0.92 (p < .01). Intrarater reliability was excellent with an ICC score of greater than 0.91 (p < .002) for all raters. Validity of the FGA with 10MWT was −0.90 (p = .000), FGA with WISCI-II was 0.74 (p = .006), and FGA with SCI-FAP was −0.83 (p = .001). Conclusion: The FGA is a reliable and valid outcome measure to use when assessing gait and balance in individuals with motor iSCI. The FGA provides clinicians with a single tool to utilize across a variety of neurologic diagnoses.

Reliability and Validity of the Functional Gait Assessment in Spinal Cord Injury

2016 ◽  
Vol 97 (10) ◽  
pp. e87
Author(s):  
Keith Gordon ◽  
Jennifer Kahn ◽  
Stephanie Ferro ◽  
Larry Frank ◽  
Leslie Klashman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Gait Assessment ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Functional Gait

Using a saddle-assistive device equipped with mechanical orthosis for walking of the person with incomplete spinal cord injury

2021 ◽  
pp. 095441192110201
Author(s):  
Akbar Hojjati Najafabadi ◽  
Saeid Amini ◽  
Farzam Farahmand
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Reaction Force ◽  
Assistive Devices ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Walking Ability ◽  
Vertical Force ◽  
Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Combined Application ◽  
Cord Injury

The majority of the people with incomplete spinal cord injury lose their walking ability, due to the weakness of their muscle motors in providing torque. As a result, developing assistive devices to improve their conditionis of great importance. In this study, a combined application of the saddle-assistive device (S-AD) and mechanical medial linkage or thosis was evaluated to improve the walking ability in patients with spinal cord injury in the gait laboratory. This mobile assistive device is called the saddle-assistive device equipped with medial linkage or thosis (S-ADEM). In this device, a mechanical orthosis was used in a wheeled walker as previously done in the literature. Initially, for evaluation of the proposed assistive device, the experimental results related to the forces and torques exerted on the feet and upper limbs of a person with the incomplete Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) during walking usingthe standard walker were compared with an those obtained from using the S-ADEM on an able-bodied subject. It was found that using this combination of assistive devices decreases the vertical force and torque on the foot at the time of walking by 53% and 48%, respectively compared to a standard walker. Moreover, the hand-reaction force on the upper limb was negligible instanding and walking positions usingthe introduced device. The findings of this study revealed that the walking ability of the patients with incomplete SCI was improved using the proposed device, which is due to the bodyweight support and the motion technology used in it.

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