Normative values for the high-level mobility assessment tool (HiMAT)

Abstract

Aims The high-level mobility assessment tool (HiMAT) was originally developed to quantify the physical ability of young people with TBI. The aims of this study were to determine the retest reliability and normative HiMAT values for young healthy adults. Known HiMAT normative scores may facilitate clinical decision making and goal setting in independently mobile people with traumatic brain injury as they provide a target for re-attaining pre-injury mobility levels Methods One hundred and three people, aged 18-25 years, were recruited. A sub-group of 59 participants completed repeat testing to investigate test-retest reliability. Findings Retest reliability measured using intraclass correlation coefficients was high (ICC (2,1)=0.88, 95% CI 0.82-0.92) with low typical error (0.95; 95% CI 0.85-1.09). The results of the Friedman test indicated that there was no significant difference between HiMAT test scores across the three time points for males, x2 (2, n=28)=4.04, P=0.13, or females, x2 (2, n=30)=4.52, P=0.11 indicating no practice effect had occurred. Males scored significantly higher than females. The median HiMAT score for males was 54/54 (inter-quartile range 53–54) and the 5th percentile was 50. For females, the median HiMAT score was 51/54 (inter-quartile range 48–53) and the 5th percentile was 44. A ceiling effect was evident for males as 52.1% achieved the maximum score. Conclusions The HiMAT has high retest reliability in the normal population and is susceptible to a ceiling effect for males, but not for females. Normative data provided in this study may aid clinicians to establish patient goals relative to the expected normal performance on this measure.