title: Assessing locomotion ability in West African stroke patients: validation of ABILOCO-Benin scale.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To calibrate and validate the Benin version of ABILOCO, a Rasch-built scale developed to assess locomotion ability in stroke patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective study and questionnaire development.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rehabilitation centers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Stroke patients (N=230; mean age ± SD, 51.1±11.6 y; 64.3% men).
  
  
  METHODS
  Not applicable.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed a preliminary list of 36 items including the 13 items of ABILOCO. Items were scored as "impossible," "difficult," or "easy." The mobility subdomain of FIM (FIM-mobility), the Functional Ambulation Classification (FAC), the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and the 10-meter walk test (10MWT) were used to evaluate and elucidate the validity of the ABILOCO-Benin scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Successive Rasch analyses led to the selection of 15 items that define a unidimensional, invariant, and linear measure of locomotion ability in stroke patients. This modified version of the ABILOCO scale, named ABILOCO-Benin, showed an excellent internal consistency, with a Person Separation Index of .93, and excellent test-retest reliability with high intraclass correlation coefficients of .95 (P<.001) for item difficulty and .93 (P<.001) for subject measures. It also presented good construct validity compared with FAC, FIM-mobility, 6MWT, and 10MWT (r≥.75, P<.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ABILOCO-Benin presents good psychometric properties. It allows valid, reliable, and objective measurements of locomotion ability in stroke patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin; Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Motricity Sciences, Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Emmanuel Sègnon
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Sogbossi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Thonnard
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: sebiyo.batcho@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Charles Sèbiyo
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Batcho
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001541:Benin; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D020127:Recovery of Function; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Locomotion; Outcome assessment; Rehabilitation; Stroke; West Africa