High-Level Mobility Assessment Tool (HiMAT): interrater reliability, retest reliability, and internal consistency.
OBJECTIVE
The High-Level Mobility Assessment Tool (HiMAT) assesses high-level mobility in people who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The purpose of this study was to investigate the interrater reliability, retest reliability, and internal consistency of data obtained with the HiMAT.


METHODS
Three physical therapists and 103 people with TBI were recruited from a rehabilitation hospital.


METHODS
Three physical therapists concurrently assessed a subset of 17 subjects with TBI to investigate interrater reliability. One physical therapist assessed a different subset of 20 subjects with TBI on 2 occasions, 2 days apart, to investigate retest reliability. Data from the entire sample of 103 subjects were used to investigate the internal consistency of this new scale.


RESULTS
Both the interrater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=.99) and the retest reliability (ICC=.99) of the HiMAT data were very high. For retest reliability, a small systematic change was detected (t=3.82, df=19), indicating a marginal improvement of 1 point at retest. Internal consistency also was very high (Cronbach alpha=.97).


CONCLUSIONS
The HiMAT is a new tool specifically designed to measure high-level mobility, which currently is not a component of existing scales used in TBI. This study demonstrated that the HiMAT is a reliable tool for measuring high-level mobility.
Williams
Gavin P
GP
Physiotherapy Department, Epworth Hospital, Richmond 3121, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. gavinw@epworth.org.au
Greenwood
Kenneth M
KM
Robertson
Val J
VJ
Goldie
Patricia A
PA
Morris
Meg E
ME
D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008124:Locomotion; D015588:Observer Variation; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis