Stasi Sofia
Background: Functional ability is directly related to quality of life and its assessment is critical in clinical practice. There is lack of a worldwide accepted rating scale adapted in the Greek language for evaluating functional ability in patients with lower limb musculoskeletal disorders. The aim of this study was the cross-cultural adaption of the Lower Extremity Functional Scale into Greek (LEFS-Greek) and the examination of its reliability properties in individuals with lower extremity musculoskeletal disorders. Method and Material: One hundred and one randomly selected individuals from a population consisting of community-dwelling elderly people with lower extremity musculoskeletal disorders participated in the present study. Item analysis of LEFS-Greek was conducted based on the collected data at initial assessment (day-1). The reliability properties of the instrument were tested using the following measures; internal consistency, repeatability, test-retest reliability and convergent validity. Results: Item analysis demonstrated that all items of the scale had good variability. LEFS-Greek internal consistency was excellent with an overall Cronbach's a at 0.974. Pearson’s r and intraclass correlation coefficient revealed excellent correlations [0.986 and 0.986 respectively, (p