Reliability is an integral component of clinical assessment and necessary for establishing baseline data, monitoring treatment outcomes and providing robust research findings. In the podiatric literature traditional measures of foot assessment have been shown to be largely unreliable. The Foot Posture Index (FPI-6) is a clinical tool used in the assessment of foot and to date, there is limited research published which evaluates the reliability of this tool in children and adolescents. Method: Thirty participants aged 5 – 16 years were recruited for the research and two raters independently recorded the FPI-6 score for each participant. Results: Excellent agreement between the two raters was identified following weighted kappa analysis (kW= 0.86). Conclusion: The FPI-6 is a quick, simple and reliable clinical tool which has demonstrated good inter-rater reliability when used in the assessment of the paediatric foot.
Rachael Lowe
Rachael Lowe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Physiopedia. A physiotherapist and technology specialist Rachael has been working with Physiopedia since 2008 to create a resource that provides universal access to physiotherapy knowledge as well as a platform for connecting and educating the global physiotherapy profession.