The Czech Fugl-Meyer assessment for post-stroke sensorimotor function: translation and cross-cultural adaptation and validation.
Barbora Kolářová, Petra Gaul-Aláčová, Nicole Musilová and 2 others
PMID 40336222WHAT IT FOUND
The Czech Fugl-Meyer Assessment showed sufficient agreement between two physiotherapists scoring the same patients.
Minor wording changes fixed translation issues, but the small sample means it is not yet proven reliable for all stroke severities.
Key findings
01Inter-rater agreement for the Czech Fugl-Meyer Assessment ranged from 73% to 100% across items, which is considered sufficient.
02Intra-rater agreement was lower, with scores varying between 45% and 100% and falling below the 70% satisfactory threshold in several motor and non-motor items.
03Specific translation ambiguities regarding movement synergies and gravity were identified and corrected in the final version.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study included only 11 patients, which is too small to confirm reliability across the full range of stroke severity. The participants were in the early subacute stage, so results may not apply to chronic stroke patients. Only two physiotherapists performed the assessments, limiting the generalisability of the inter-rater findings. The range of scores observed was narrow, meaning the test's ability to distinguish between very mild and very severe impairment was not fully evaluated.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The work was funded by Palacký University and the Czech Ministry of Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the Czech Fugl-Meyer Assessment is fully validated for all clinical uses. The reliability data comes from a very small pilot study of 11 patients, and intra-rater agreement was often below the satisfactory threshold.