Abstract :
Objective: The objective of this study is to explore whether different screen sizes have an influence on ARAT consistency, when scored by physiotherapists with a chronic Stroke patient.
Design: Quantitative retrospective correlational cohort study. Twenty physiotherapists were recruited using non-probability snowball sampling. The participants viewed a video of a physiotherapist performing ARAT and had to apply the ARAT scoring system to rate the patient?s upper limb function. There were two groups of participants: one group viewed the video on a laptop (n=8) and the other with a projector (n=12). Non-parametric data analysis–Spearman?s rank correlation coefficient was used to analyse the association between ARAT and screen size. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 32 (SD = 6.989). There were 65% (n=13) male and 35% (n=7) female participants, of seven different nationalities. The ARAT scoring data were approximately normally distributed. Spearman?s rho correlation analysis indicated there is no significant association between ARAT scoring and screen
size. The p-value equalled 0.282, higher than the significance level of 0.05.
Conclusions: This is the first study to focus on the influence of extraneous variables (specifically screen size) on ARAT evaluation. The results show that there is no correlation between screen size and ARAT scoring, adding to the existing evidence that ARAT is a reliable tool and therefore should be seen as one of the best options for use clinically with chronic stroke patients for assessing impairment of the upper limbs. However, there are some limitations to the study. A study with a random sample and higher sample size is required to increase the representativeness of the findings and allow generalisation.
Keyword :
Action Research Arm Test, ARAT, Screen Size, Extraneous Variables, Chronic Stroke, Consistency, Upper Limb AssessmentÂ