Item Difficulties of the FIM-Motor Subscale in Patients with Ischemic Stroke during Acute Care: An Ordinal Logistic Modeling Study

Objective: The aim of the current study was to assess the item difficulties of the motor subscales of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM-motor) in patients with ischemic stroke during acute care.

Methods: FIM scores were assessed for each patient on admission to, and discharge from, acute care. The relationship between individual FIM-motor items (target variables) and the total FIM-motor score (explanatory variable) was assessed by ordinal logistic modeling. The total FIM-motor scores that corresponded to a 50% probability of independence level 5 (supervision or setup) for each FIM-motor item were assessed.

Results: A total of 250 patients (155 men, 95 women) were included in the analytical database. The median age was 74 (interquartile range [IQR], 66-81) years and the median length of hospital stay was 14 (IQR, 10-24) days. Ordinal logistic modeling was successfully performed for all 13 FIM-motor items. The total FIM-motor scores that corresponded to a 50% probability of independence level 5 for individual FIM-motor items were as follows: eating, 34.1; bowel management, 42.2; bladder management, 43.4; grooming, 51.0; toileting, 62.0; dressing the lower body, 64.5; transfer to bed/chair/wheelchair, 65.5; transfer to toilet, 65.9; bathing, 70.3; dressing the upper body, 73.6; locomotion, 74.2; transfer to tub/shower, 80.0; and stair climbing, 89.2.

Conclusions: These results revealed that eating, grooming, and bowel and bladder management were relatively easy, whereas gait-related items such as locomotion and stair climbing were difficult. Items such as transfer to bed/chair/wheelchair and toileting had intermediate difficulty. These results should facilitate efficient rehabilitative treatments during acute care.