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Assessing functional mobility in survivors of lower‐extremity sarcoma: Reliability and validity of a new assessment tool
Author(s) -
Marchese Victoria G.,
Rai Shesh N.,
Carlson Claire A.,
Hinds Pamela S.,
Spearing Elena M.,
Zhang Lijun,
Callaway Lulie,
Neel Michael D.,
Rao Bhaskar N.,
Ginsberg Jill P.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.20932
Subject(s) - medicine , reliability (semiconductor) , sarcoma , reliability engineering , physical medicine and rehabilitation , pathology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Background Reliability and validity of a new tool, Functional Mobility Assessment (FMA), were examined in patients with lower‐extremity sarcoma. FMA requires the patients to physically perform the functional mobility measures, unlike patient self‐report or clinician administered measures. Procedure A sample of 114 subjects participated, 20 healthy volunteers and 94 patients with lower‐extremity sarcoma after amputation, limb‐sparing, or rotationplasty surgery. Reliability of the FMA was examined by three raters testing 20 healthy volunteers and 23 subjects with lower‐extremity sarcoma. Concurrent validity was examined using data from 94 subjects with lower‐extremity sarcoma who completed the FMA, Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS), Short‐Form 36 (SF‐36v2), and Toronto Extremity Salvage Scale (TESS) scores. Construct validity was measured by the ability of the FMA to discriminate between subjects with and without functional mobility deficits. Results FMA demonstrated excellent reliability (ICC [2,1] ≥0.97). Moderate correlations were found between FMA and SF‐36v2 (r = 0.60, P < 0.01), FMA and MSTS (r = 0.68, P < 0.01), and FMA and TESS (r = 0.62, P < 0.01). The patients with lower‐extremity sarcoma scored lower on the FMA as compared to healthy controls ( P < 0.01). Conclusion The FMA is a reliable and valid functional outcome measure for patients with lower‐extremity sarcoma. This study supports the ability of the FMA to discriminate between patients with varying functional abilities and supports the need to include measures of objective functional mobility in examination of patients with lower‐extremity sarcoma. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2007;49:183–189. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.