Loaded and unloaded timed stair tests as tools for assessing advanced functional mobility in people with stroke.

Background: The Timed Stair Test (TST) was originally designed to measure advanced functional mobility in patients who have undergone a total hip replacement. Its psychometric properties have not been examined systematically in people with stroke.

Aim: The aims of this study were to: 1) determine the intra-rater reliability of TST under loaded and unloaded condition; 2) identify the minimal detectable changes (MDCs) in TST completion times; 3) investigate the concurrent validity between TST completion times and stroke-specific outcome measures; and 4) determine the cut-off TST completion time to differentiate the performance between people with stroke and healthy older adults.