Carvalhosa L1, Bacelar P1, Rodrigues M1, Silva C1, Pedro L1
1Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Physiotherapy, Lisbon, Portugal
Background: Parkinson´s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative pathology that leads to several changes in the gait pattern (slowed speed, hypokinesia, festination and freezing), decreasing the quality of life and therefore increasing the risk of falls and mortality. It is also a disease affecting 6 million people worldwide and 20 thousand people in Portugal. As such, it would be pertinent to have tools available in several language, namely in portuguese, to evaluate the progression of gait parameters throughout the clinical history of these individuals. The Functional Gait Assessment (FGA), proposed by Wrisley in 2004, consists of a 10-item gait test developed on the basis of the Dynamic Gait Index (DGI). Since the FGA was published, several studies have analyzed its intra- and inter-rater reliability and its consistency in neurological pathologies, namely in PD, showing statistically significant results in the PD evaluation.
Purpose: The objective of this study is to contribute to the validation of the FGA in PD for the portuguese language. This study intends to provide a validated tool for the evaluation of gait parameters in this population. Thus, it is expected to help physiotherapists, doctors and other health professionals in this area.
Methods: After the translation and retroversion by 2 bilingual translators, the Portuguese version of the FGA was obtained. The inclusion criteria was applied (diagnosis of idiopathic PD, stage I to IV on the modified scale Hoehn and Yahr, score ≥ 24 in Mini Mental, takes on orthostatism, medication in "ON" mode), obtaining a sample of 32 participants from 3 institutions (Associação Portuguesa de Doentes de Parkinson, Clínica Prinovhelp and Policlínica Parque da Paz). The ethical criteria were met according to the Declaration of Helsinki, followed by the psychometric analysis of the FGA, which included verification of internal consistency and inter-rater reliability (evaluator A and B) and convergent evaluation using the Tinneti scale.
Results: A total of 32 ambulatory patients (25 men and 7 women) completed the study, with a mean age of 69±8.67 and mostly in stage II on the HY scale. The years of diagnosis of the disease ranged from 6 months to 25 years. Most do not need support products for walking. In the psychometric analysis of the results, we verified that the value of Cronbach´s alpha obtained for the final score of the FGA for the evaluator A was 0.87 and for the evaluator B it was 0.90. An intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was obtained for the final FGA score of 0.968 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of between 0.935 and 0.985, where the majority of the items presented a very good inter-rater coefficient.
Conclusion(s): The Portuguese version of FGA demonstrated in the present study a good internal consistency and inter-rater reliability to measure the evolution of balance and gait pattern changes found in individuals with PD.
Implications: The contribution to the validation of the FGA for the Portuguese population is pertinent allowing the applicability in PD for the evaluation of gait and balance parameters.
Keywords: Parkinson Disease, Functional Gait Assessment, Gait
Funding acknowledgements: No funding.
Purpose: The objective of this study is to contribute to the validation of the FGA in PD for the portuguese language. This study intends to provide a validated tool for the evaluation of gait parameters in this population. Thus, it is expected to help physiotherapists, doctors and other health professionals in this area.
Methods: After the translation and retroversion by 2 bilingual translators, the Portuguese version of the FGA was obtained. The inclusion criteria was applied (diagnosis of idiopathic PD, stage I to IV on the modified scale Hoehn and Yahr, score ≥ 24 in Mini Mental, takes on orthostatism, medication in "ON" mode), obtaining a sample of 32 participants from 3 institutions (Associação Portuguesa de Doentes de Parkinson, Clínica Prinovhelp and Policlínica Parque da Paz). The ethical criteria were met according to the Declaration of Helsinki, followed by the psychometric analysis of the FGA, which included verification of internal consistency and inter-rater reliability (evaluator A and B) and convergent evaluation using the Tinneti scale.
Results: A total of 32 ambulatory patients (25 men and 7 women) completed the study, with a mean age of 69±8.67 and mostly in stage II on the HY scale. The years of diagnosis of the disease ranged from 6 months to 25 years. Most do not need support products for walking. In the psychometric analysis of the results, we verified that the value of Cronbach´s alpha obtained for the final score of the FGA for the evaluator A was 0.87 and for the evaluator B it was 0.90. An intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was obtained for the final FGA score of 0.968 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of between 0.935 and 0.985, where the majority of the items presented a very good inter-rater coefficient.
Conclusion(s): The Portuguese version of FGA demonstrated in the present study a good internal consistency and inter-rater reliability to measure the evolution of balance and gait pattern changes found in individuals with PD.
Implications: The contribution to the validation of the FGA for the Portuguese population is pertinent allowing the applicability in PD for the evaluation of gait and balance parameters.
Keywords: Parkinson Disease, Functional Gait Assessment, Gait
Funding acknowledgements: No funding.
Topic: Neurology: Parkinson's disease; Professional practice: other; Neurology
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa
Ethics committee: Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa
Ethics number: CE. ESTESL. N85-2018
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
