title: Reliability of measurement of tempo-spatial parameters of gait after stroke using GaitMat II.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  (1) To find the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of raters using GaitMat II to measure tempo-spatial gait parameters of stroke patients. (2) To find if reliability is related to abnormality of footprint patterns.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective agreement study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A movement analysis laboratory.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nineteen adults who were at least six months after stroke and able to walk 4 metres with or without assistance participated as subjects in this study. There were five raters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects completed at least two walks along GaitMat II. The raw footprint data were analysed independently by each of the five raters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for each rater within subject ranged from 0.8398 to 0.9318. However eight of the 17 parameters tested showed significant differences between raters (p = 0.0029 to p < 0.0001). When the most inexperienced rater was excluded, differences between experienced raters (n = 4) was found to be statistically insignificant for all parameters. The association of the mean score and standard deviation of experienced raters was significant for nine parameters (r values 0.5087 to 0.9459), i.e., as walking pattern became more abnormal, variation in scoring between raters increased.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  GaitMat II may have acceptable inter-rater reliability if raters have experience of gait analysis but disagreement may increase when stroke patients exhibit more abnormal gait patterns.
authors.affiliation: The Stroke Association's Therapy Research Unit, University of Manchester, UK. v.pomeroy@sghms.ac.uk
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Pomeroy
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chambers
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giakas
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bland
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology*