Psychometric Properties of the Trail Walking Test for People With Stroke.

Objective: To investigate (i) the inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the trail walking test (TWT) and the minimum detectable change in the TWT completion time; (ii) the correlations between the TWT completion time and stroke-specific impairments; and (iii) the cutoff TWT completion time to distinguish between people with stroke and healthy older adults according to dual-tasking ambulation ability. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: University-based rehabilitation center. Participants: In total, 104 people with stroke and 53 healthy older adults. Main Outcome Measures: The TWT, the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Lower Extremity (FMA-LE), the ankle muscle strength test, the limit of stability (LOS) test, the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), the Timed Up and Go test (TUG), and the Community Integration Measure (CIM). Results: The mean TWT completion time in subjects with stroke was 124.906 s. The TWT demonstrated excellent inter-rater reliability [intraclass correlation (ICC) = 0.999] and good test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.876) in people with stroke. The TWT performance demonstrated significant negative correlations with the FMA-LE scores ( Conclusion: Results of our preliminary study demonstrated that the TWT is a reliable, valid, sensitive, and specific clinical test for evaluating dual-tasking ambulation ability in people with stroke aged 45 years or above and without cognitive impairments. It can differentiate the dual-tasking ambulation ability between people with stroke and healthy older adults.