The scalability of the Rivermead Motor Assessment in acute stroke patients.

Objective: To examine the scalability of the Rivermead Motor Assessment with hospitalized acute stroke patients.

Design: This was a prospective study of hospitalized stroke patients.

Subjects: Fifty-one selected stroke patients, including those over the age of 65, were assessed at one, three and six weeks post-stroke using the Rivermead Motor Assessment. Coefficients of scalability and reproducibility were calculated for each of the three sections of the Rivermead Motor Assessment at each assessment.

Results: The items in the gross function and arm sections met scaling criteria at all three assessments which meant that they were in appropriate order of difficulty. There was an overall increase in the proportion of subjects passing each item at successive assessments, suggesting that patients in the study were recovering. The leg and trunk section did not meet scale criteria with these acute stroke patients.

Conclusions: We recommend that only the gross function and arm sections should be used as hierarchical scales with selected acute stroke patients. The leg and trunk section should only be used as an assessment checklist.