Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the construct validity and interrater reliability of 4 simple antigravity
tests in a small group of patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD).
Design
Case-control study.
Setting
University medical center.
Participants
Patients with various severity levels of FSHD (n=9) and healthy control subjects (n=10)
were included (N=19).
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
A 4-point ordinal scale was designed to grade performance on the following 4 antigravity
tests: sit to stance, stance to sit, step up, and step down. In addition, the 6-minute
walk test, 10-m walking test, Berg Balance Scale, and timed Up and Go test were administered
as conventional tests. Construct validity was determined by linear regression analysis
using the Clinical Severity Score (CSS) as the dependent variable. Interrater agreement
was tested using a κ analysis.
Results
Patients with FSHD performed worse on all 4 antigravity tests compared with the controls.
Stronger correlations were found within than between test categories (antigravity
vs conventional). The antigravity tests revealed the highest explained variance with
regard to the CSS (R2=.86, P=.014). Interrater agreement was generally good.
Conclusions
The results of this exploratory study support the construct validity and interrater
reliability of the proposed antigravity tests for the assessment of functional capacity
in patients with FSHD taking into account the use of compensatory strategies. Future
research should further validate these results in a larger sample of patients with
FSHD.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
BBS (Berg Balance Scale), CSS (Clinical Severity Score), FSHD (facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy), MMT (manual muscle testing), 6MWT (6-minute walk test), 10MWT (10-meter walk test), TUG (timed Up and Go)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 09, 2015
Footnotes
Supported by the Dutch Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy Foundation and POM VIGO.
The sponsors had no involvement in study design, data collection, data interpretation, writing, or submission of the manuscript.
Disclosures: All authors received a grant from the Dutch Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy Foundation and N.H.R., A.C.G., and V.W. received a grant from POM VIGO during the conduct of the study.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
