Development of a Clinical Model for Assessment of Posture and Balance for Stroke Patients

Abstract

Method Design and Procedure: Focus groups were used to elicit this information. Participants in each focus group were shown a series of photographs of a typical stroke patient in sitting and standing positions, and the physiotherapists were asked: ‘What would you note if you were assessing the posture and balance of this patient?’ Their answers were displayed on flip charts which allowed immediate feedback about the accuracy and completeness of the data. New focus groups were convened until saturation of the data was achieved. Analysis: The contents of the flip charts were analysed to identify broad themes which were broken down into categories and sub-categories. Three independent assessors checked the reliability of the content analysis (and found more than 99% agreement), and internal and external validity were checked by presenting the results to two of the original focus groups, and to another previously uninvolved group.