Consistency between two subjective assessments of activities of daily living: Patient- and occupational therapist-reported judgments

PURPOSE: To examine the consistency between patient- and occupational therapist-reported judgments of patients’ ability and change in ADL abilities. MATERIALS: Patient- and therapist-reported ADL abilities were assessed using a Visual Analogue Scale, whilst the changes in patients’ ADL abilities were reported by patients and therapists using a 15-point Likert-type scale. METHODS: Repeated assessments at a 3-week interval were used. 88 inpatients with stroke and 16 occupational therapists were recruited from rehabilitation wards in a medical center. RESULTS: Moderate correlations (rs = .53–.56) were found between the patient- and therapist-reported ADL abilities. The patient-reported scores were significantly lower (ds = .45; ps < .001 at follow-up) than the therapist-reported scores. Only low correlation (r = .33) was found for the change scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that there was only a moderate to low correlation between the patients' reports and the therapists' judgments regarding the patients' ADL ability and its change. Because both patients’ reports and therapists’ judgments affect decisions on rehabilitation, frequent communication may be beneficial for reaching consensus and helpful in managing the interventions.