Reliability and Validity of the Revised Version of the Ability for Basic Movement Scale in Chronic Hospitalized Patients: A Retrospective Study

Background and purpose To investigate the usefulness of the revised Ability for Basic Movement Scale (ABMS II) for chronic-phase hospitalized patients, whether admitted owing to illness or injury. Methods A retrospective cohort of 176 consecutively admitted chronic care inpatients who underwent rehabilitation therapy between April 2021 and March 2023 was analyzed. Patients who died during admission, who were discharged within one month, or who had insufficient clinical data were excluded. Information on sex, age, residence before admission, and underlying diseases requiring physical rehabilitation therapy was collected. Daily living abilities were measured using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and Barthel Index (BI) scores during admission. Basic movement abilities were evaluated by two physical therapists using the ABMS II. The inter-rater reliability of ABMS II scores between therapists was analyzed using the weighted kappa coefficient. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the validity of ABMS II and its correlation with FIM/BI scores. This retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hikari Hospital (Approval No. HH‑2024‑01). Results and discussion The cohort had a mean age of 84.8 ± 7.3 years, 56% were female, and baseline mean (SD) scores were 18.6 ± 7.6 for ABMS II, 53.8 ± 22.9 for FIM‑total, and 35.0 ± 26.7 for BI. The ABMS II showed excellent agreement (weighted kappa = 0.996; 95% confidence interval: 0.993-0.999) and strong positive correlations (0.743-0.819) with total FIM/BI scores. Conclusions The ABMS Ⅱ is useful for evaluating basic movement abilities in patients with chronic illnesses.