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Original Article
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Dynamic gait index post-stroke: What is the item hierarchy and what does it tell the clinician? A Rasch analysis | ||||||
Stacey E. Aaron1, Ickpyo Hong1, Mark G. Bowden2, Chris M. Gregory2, Aaron E. Embry3, Craig A. Velozo4 | ||||||
1PhD Candidate, Department of Health Sciences & Research, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States.
2Associate Professor, Department of Health Sciences & Research, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States; Division of Physical Therapy, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States; Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, Charleston, South Carolina, United States. 3Research Associate, Department of Health Sciences & Research, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States; Division of Physical Therapy, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States; Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, Charleston, South Carolina, United States. 4Occupational Therapy Division Director and Professor, Division of Occupational Therapy, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States. | ||||||
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Aaron SE, Hong I, Bowden MG, Gregory CM, Embry AE, Velozo CA. Dynamic gait index post-stroke: What is the item hierarchy and what does it tell the clinician? A Rasch analysis. Edorium J Disabil Rehabil 2016;2:105–114. |
Abstract
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Aims:
The purpose of this study was to use the Rasch measurement model to determine (1) the dynamic gait index (DGI) item-level psychometrics, (2) if the item-difficulty hierarchical order is consistent with a clinically logical progression from easiest to hardest, and (3) if the range of tasks is sufficient to measure the functional ability levels of the sample.
Methods: Data were retrieved retrospectively from study records, which included initial DGI scores and subject demographics collected at multiple university laboratories. Individuals were eligible to participate if 18+ years of age, >6 months post-stroke, residual paresis in lower extremity, and ability to walk with/without assistive device (n=117). Psychometrics of the DGI were tested with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch measurement modeling. Results: DGI demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties: unidimensionality (CFA: χ2/df =2.12, CFI=0.98, TLI=0.97, RMSEA=0.09), no misfit items to the Rasch model, local independence (all item residual correlations <0.2), and a good internal reliability (Cronbach alpha of 0.86). Item-level analysis revealed a clear item-difficulty hierarchical order that is consistent with clinical observation and expectations. While the instrument separates the sample into three significant strata, there was mismatch between the average of person ability distribution (0.86 logit) and the average of item difficulties (0.00 logit). Conclusion: The DGI demonstrated good item-level psychometric properties and an expected item-difficulty hierarchical order. Order of administration and adding more challenging items may improve precision and person-item matching to better differentiate between individuals with higher ability levels. | |
Keywords:
Dynamic gait index (DGI), Gait, Psychometrics, Rasch, Stroke
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Introduction
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Multiple studies have shown a high incidence of falls within community dwelling individuals with chronic stroke [1] [2] [3]. The amount of fallers post-stroke is approximately 34% at three to four months, as high as 73% at six months, and 70% at one-year follow-up [4] [5] [6]. Additionally, within 12 months of their first fall 21 to 57% of stroke survivors are repeat fallers [6]. High frequency of falls may be due to a combination of existing fall risk factors before stroke, as well as impairments typically seen after stroke, such as decreased strength and balance, hemineglect, perceptual problems, and visual problems [7]. Therefore, a large emphasis in rehabilitation for individuals after stroke has been devoted to the development of interventions aimed at improving balance and mobility function. Majority of falls occur during walking (40–90%), so the ability to assess dynamic balance and mobility properly post-stroke is extremely important [6] [8][9]. One common tool used to assess changes in mobility and fall risk is the dynamic gait index (DGI). The DGI was developed by Shumway-Cook and Woollacott to evaluate functional stability during gait activities and risk of falling in older individuals with vestibular issues [10]. This assessment is used to detect problems that cannot be distinguished with less dynamic balance assessments (e.g. Berg Balance Scale) by evaluating a person's ability to alter gait in response to changing gait demands [10][11]. The psychometric properties of the DGI have been reported in many different patient populations including community-dwelling older individuals [12] [13] [14], vestibular dysfunction [15] [16], multiple sclerosis [17] [18], Parkinson's disease [19] [20], as well as stroke [21] [22]. The stroke properties include excellent test-retest reliability of 0.96 [21] [22], excellent interrater reliability of 0.96 [21], excellent construct validity with 10 meter walk test (r= -0.68 to -0.83) and postural assessment scale (r=0.76 to 0.85) [22], and moderate responsiveness at depicting changes at second month and fifth month after therapy [21]. Despite these findings, there has not been any study that has used the Rasch measurement model to investigate the measurement properties of the DGI in the chronic stroke population. Further analysis may reveal other important psychometric characteristics, like item-difficulty hierarchical order, which may add to its clinical applicability and interpretability as a measure of walking balance ability. The DGI is typically administered in order of the tasks listed on the form. However the tool was not built with an item-difficulty hierarchy in consideration [12]. The hierarchical structure of tasks has been established for the DGI in community-dwelling older individuals [12] [23], but has not yet been evaluated in stroke. Other researchers have determined that the item hierarch in older adults differs compared to individuals with vestibular disorders, for whom the assessment was developed, and therefore there is a need to establish the DGI item hierarchy for other populations, such as stroke. Completion of walking tasks, according to difficulty, would be clinically useful since the Rasch item hierarchical structure of tasks may be used to establish the logical order of administration of items, beginning with the easiest and progressing to the hardest. Understanding and formalizing the order of administration could inform clinicians in three very important areas of clinical practice:
The purpose of this study was to use Rasch analysis to examine the measurement properties of the DGI. This includes unidimensionality, fit statistics, local independency, test reliability, and person distribution. Additionally, we will determine the item-difficulty hierarchical ordering of the DGI items and determine if the order is consistent with a clinically logical progression from easiest to hardest. Finally, we determined if the range of task difficulty is sufficient to measure our sample without a ceiling effect. | ||||||
Materials and Methods
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Participants Procedure Analyses Dimensionality Precision Construct validity | ||||||
Results | ||||||
One hundred and seventeen participants were included in analysis. Average age was 59 (SD = 12.8) with a range of 21–83 years old. The majority of the sample was male (59.8%) and left side hemiplegia (53.0%) with a median DGI score of 15 indicating an increased fall risk (Table 1). Dimensionality Precision Construct validity | ||||||
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Discussion
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This study presents the analysis of the DGI by Rasch modeling. The DGI demonstrated good psychometric properties with the Rasch measurement model. While one of four fit indices did not meet the model fit criteria (RMSEA), all test items demonstrated good point-biserial correlations, fit statistics, and local independency. The item hierarchical order of the DGI has a logical item-difficulty construct with the instrument able to separate the sample into three distinct sample groups. The item-person map revealed that, on average, the sample performed 0.86 logit (about 1 standard deviation) higher than the average item-difficulty, with four people having had maximum measure scores. The range of item step threshold difficulty (the average of difficulty between adjacent response categories) did not cover 6% of the sample (n=7) who had a high person ability. The average standard error (SE) of person measures in the sample was 0.63 logits. However, the average of SE of the seven people who were not covered by the range of step threshold difficulty was 1.52 logits, which is equivalent to a value of 0.43 test information function. Mathematically, as SE increases the reliability decreases [35]. In other words, the DGI cannot precisely measure those seven participants. Our ceiling effect is lower than Lin et al. [22] who reported a ceiling effect with the DGI as high as 10% of their 39 subjects with stroke after two months of therapy. Therefore, the clinical implications for these results suggest assessments used in the stroke population need to include more difficult items to match with individuals who exhibit higher functional locomotor abilities. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to report an item-difficulty hierarchical order for individuals with chronic stroke. The results showed the hierarchical order of item-difficulty with "step over obstacle", "stairs", and "level surface" being most difficult, "vertical head turn" and "horizontal head turn" being of medium difficulty, and "pivot turn", "change in speed", and "stepping around obstacles" being the least difficult. This item-difficulty hierarchical order represents a logical progression from hardest ("stepping over obstacles") to easiest ("stepping around obstacles"). The most difficult items ("step over obstacle" and "stairs") require single-limb support, as well as more strength, with the hemiparetic leg. Observationally, individuals with stroke tend to look down at their feet when they are walking, so it is not surprising that "vertical head turn" and "horizontal head turn" are considered to be of medium difficulty. The items "pivot turn", "change in speed", and "step around obstacles" do not require any extended periods of single-limb support, drastically change the center of mass, or require the individuals to alter visual preferences and resulted in easier tasks for the individuals to perform. One item that may seem out of typical order is walking across "level surface", which is placed as the third most difficult task. This may be due to how the task is scored, which assess speed, abnormal gait patterns, and evidence of imbalance, whereas a task like "change in speed" is solely scored on ability to change speed and loss of balance while changing speed, but is not assessing abnormal gait patterns or speed during self-selected pace over level surface. As expected, our item-difficulty hierarchical order for chronic stroke is different from the reported hierarchical order of community-dwelling older adults [12]. Chiu et al. [12] reported the item-difficulty hierarchical progression from hardest to easy being "horizontal head turn", "steps", "vertical head turn", "pivot turn", "over obstacle", "around obstacle", "speed change", and "level surface". These results suggest that not only are there differences between item-difficulty hierarchical order between differing populations, but also that the hierarchical structures are much different than the typical order of administration used in clinical settings. If the DGI is used in this population these results suggest that clinical administration of the order of items should be considered when administering the test in chronic stroke individuals. For example, on the basis of the item hierarchy found with our analysis, an individual who is capable of "stepping over an obstacle" has a higher probability of being successful at "horizontal head turn". This suggests that if a person is successful at a more difficult task then it would be unnecessary to test the person on an easier task. This approach for item-difficulty selection could reduce the burden of testing on the individual and reduce test administration time [12] [37]. Future directions include the analysis of the Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) developed by Wrisley et al. [38], which is a modification of the DGI, developed to address some of the shortcomings of the DGI. To reduce the ceiling effect, additional items were added to the FGA that were expected to be more difficult. These tasks include "ambulating backwards", "gait with eyes closed", and "gait with narrow base of support". Furthermore, the DGI task "walk around obstacles" was removed in the FGA because it has been shown to be of insufficient difficulty [38]. Beninato and Ludlow [23] found that the FGA is clinically appropriate and a construct valid measure of walking balance ability in older individuals by Rasch modeling standards. A study by Lin et al. [22] analyzed ambulation measures used in the stroke population with their study comparing psychometric properties of DGI, DGI-4 (modified DGI with only 4 tasks), and the FGA. The FGA showed the strongest psychometric properties, however Rasch analysis was not used and the item-difficulty hierarchical order of the FGA is still not known. There is a great need to establish an FGA item hierarchy for the chronic stroke population. Study Limitations In addition, the RMSEA value (0.09) was relatively higher than the optimal cut-off of 0.06. However, the RMSEA is positively biased by a small sample size and small degree of freedom that results in a too large RMSEA value [39]. One simulation study demonstrated that a small sample size (about n=100) tended to falsely reject a valid unidimensional model with the optimal RMSEA cut-off [40]. Brown [32] suggests that with a small sample size, a RMSEA value of 0.08 is of less concern and is a good model fit if all other fit indices meet the CFA model fit criteria. While the RMSEA of the DGI was slightly higher than 0.08, the other three fit indices met the model fit criteria and there were no low point-biserial correlations or high Rasch fit statistics. Therefore, we assumed that the DGI was essentially unidimensional. There is a need for future studies to validate our findings with a larger and more diverse sample. | ||||||
Conclusion
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The results suggest that the dynamic gait index (DGI) has good item-level psychometric properties and a hierarchical order that is logical when used in individuals with chronic stroke. Within our sample, the individuals with the highest abilities were not precisely assessed and adding more challenging items may improve precision and person-item matching. If the DGI is used the order of tasks based off difficulty, instead of the order of tasks listed on the form, may better assess dynamic function and may result in better representative ability scores. One possible assessment that may better assess this population is the Functional Gait Assessment, however this measure has not been analyzed using the Rasch model in chronic stroke population. | ||||||
Acknowledgements
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This material is the result of work supported with resources and the use of facilities at the NF/SG Veterans Health System in Gainesville, FL and the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, SC. The contents do not represent the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government. | ||||||
References
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Suggested Reading
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Author Contributions:
Stacey E. Aaron – Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published Ickpyo Hong – Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published Mark G. Bowden – Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published Chris M. Gregory – Acquisition of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published Aaron E. Embry – Acquisition of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published Craig A. Velozo – Substantial contributions to conception and design, Analysis and interpretation of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published |
Guarantor of submission
The corresponding author is the guarantor of submission. |
Source of support
None |
Conflict of interest
The seven studies used for this study were funded by VA Rehabilitation R&D grant B3983R, VA Rehabilitation R&D Center of Excellence grant F2182C, VA Rehabilitation R&D I01 RX000844, American Heart Association BgIA7450016, NIH/NIGMS U54 GM10494, NIH/NIGMS P20 GM109040, and NIH/NICHHD R01 HD 46820. |
Copyright
© 2016 Stacey E. Aaron et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information. |
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