Inter-rater agreement of two functional independence scales: the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and a subjective uniform continuous scale

Abstract

The needs and clinical decisions of care centres are related to patients' ability to carry out daily living activities. Most of the functional scales are not easy to use. This study examined the inter-rater agreement of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and a subjective uniform continuous scale (UCS) (the rating varied between 0 = complete dependence and 9 = complete independence) between 'educators', physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Two hundred and fifty-four patients aged below 20 in a rehabilitation centre were rated by professionals who were most familiar with them. For the two scales, inter-rater agreement was very good for all activities except for locomotion outside the centre for the UCS. The rating differences were slightly smaller for the FIM than for the UCS. Physiotherapists rated similarly to occupational therapists. The educators rated slightly though significantly lower than the other raters. The differences could be explained by their professional activities.