title: Validity of accelerometry for monitoring real-world arm activity in patients with subacute stroke: evidence from the extremity constraint-induced therapy evaluation trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the psychometric properties of an objective method for assessing real-world arm activity in a large sample with subacute stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  Validation study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Community.
  
  
  METHODS
  Persons 3 to 9 months poststroke (N=169) with mild to moderate motor impairment of their hemiparetic arm enrolled in a multisite, randomized clinical trial of constraint-induced movement therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Not applicable.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants wore an accelerometer on each arm outside the laboratory for 3 days before and after treatment or an equivalent no-treatment period. They also completed the Actual Amount of Use Test (AAUT), which is an observational measure of spontaneous more-impaired arm use, and the Motor Activity Log (MAL), which is an interview assessing more-impaired arm use in daily life.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Low-pass-filtered accelerometer recordings were reliable (r range, >.8) and stable (P range, >.48). Their validity was also supported. Correlations calculated across all participants at baseline between the ratio of more-impaired to less-impaired arm accelerometer recordings and AAUT and MAL scores were .60 and .52, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Accelerometry provides an objective, real-world index of more-impaired arm activity with good psychometric properties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA. guswatte@uab.edu
authors.forename: Gitendra
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Uswatte
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Giuliani
authors.forename: Carolee
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Winstein
authors.forename: Angelique
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zeringue
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hobbs
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Wolf
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D001132:Arm / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory; D009068:Movement; D010291:Paresis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation