Establishing the reliability of mobility milestones as an outcome measure for stroke

Study aims to establish intrarater, interrater, and test-retest reliability of a standardized measure of mobility, "mobility milestones", incorporating sitting balance, standing balance, and walking ability. Kappa statistics were used to determine interrater reliability and showed good (.61-.80) to very good (.81-1.0) reliability for 3 of 4 milestones. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to determine intrarater reliability of the 4 repeated clips and showed 75% of all subjects had high (ICC2,1=.91-1.0) reliability. The ICC2,1 for test-retest reliability showed a similar pattern, with 70% of subjects showing good (.81-.90) or high (.91-1.0) reliability. The mobility milestones showed favorable levels of reliability when used by experienced or novice physiotherapists. The milestones can be adopted as a simple clinical outcome measure for use with stroke. Further research is required to establish reliability levels when the measure is used by different rehabilitation professionals.