Introduction and Objective

Falling and the fear of falling are major issues for people with lower limb amputation. A number of tools have been developed to assess the fear of falling, these include The Falls Efficacy Scale – International (FES-I). As with any tool, it is important that the validity and reliability of the tool is established for specific target populations. The reliability of the FES-I has been established for multiple patients group. A previous study had established good relative reliability in a small sam- ple of lower limb prosthesis users (ICC = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.70-0.94) (Nugent et al. 2022). However, the current project aimed to evaluate the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the FES-I for lower limb prosthesis users with a larger sample. The current abstract outlines the assessment of test-retest reliability of the FES-I.

Materials and Methods

Forty lower limb prosthesis users with varying levels of amputation from Sweden (n=27) and England (n=13) completed an online questionnaire, which included the FES-I, on two separate oc- casions, separated by two weeks. Given the data distribution, Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was used to evaluate the test re-test reliability of the FES-I responses between these two occasions.

Results

A strong, positive, statistically significant correlation between the two occasions was indicated (rs (25)=0,902, p=< .001). This suggested that there was excellent test re-test reliability for the FES-I in a group of lower limb prosthesis users.

Conclusions

The FES-I shows excellent test-retest reliability (rs>.8) for lower limb prosthesis users, and re- searchers interested in utilizing this instrument can be confident in the reliability in this specific group. This is useful information, particularly for those involved in longitudinal assessment of falls efficacy.