The responsiveness of the ten-meter walking test and other measures in patients with hemiparesis in the acute phase.

The responsiveness of the Ten-Meter Walking Test (10 MWT) for assessing the walking ability of patients with hemiparesis in the acute phase was evaluated. To put this into perspective, the responsiveness of two other measures, the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Motricity Index (MI) were evaluated as well. Nineteen patients with hemiparesis due to stroke or cerebral tumour in the acute phase were recruited to this study. To measure its responsiveness, the 10 MWT was performed three times a week, and the BBS and the MI performed twice a week. The responsiveness of all tests was computed using the Effect Sizes (ES) and Standardized Response Means (SRM). The ES for the 10 MWT was 1.17 and the SRM was 1.68. The ES and SRM of the BBS were 0.59 and 0.99. The ES and SRM of the MI were 0.27 and 0.96. The results of this study indicate that the 10 MWT is a responsive assessment tool, and appears to be more responsive than other commonly used tests.