A re-validation of the Rivermead ADL scale for elderly patients with stroke.

The Rivermead ADL scale was developed for assessing activities of daily living in stroke patients but was not validated for elderly subjects. This study was designed to validate the scale for patients aged over 64 years. A series of 150 stroke patients was assessed on the scale, of whom 103 were aged over 64 years. The coefficients of reproducibility and 'scalability' were within acceptable limits both for patients aged under 65 and over 64 years. A revised order of assessment is suggested based on the order of difficulty of items. The two original household scales were combined to give an overall household scale which was validated as a unidimensional Guttman scale.