Assessment Overview

Purpose: Quantify stroke severity into poor, intermediate, or good.

Summary: Test administrator examines motor deficits in the arm, proprioception, balance, and cognition to determine prognosis and future functional outcomes. Scores range from 1.6-6.8 with higher scores indicating greater deficits. The test takes 5 minutes to administer and no special equipment or training is needed.

Equipment: None

ICF Category: Body function

Assessment Psychometrics

The OPS is highly recommended for use in those with acute and subacute stroke but not recommended for use in the chronic stroke population. The OPS is highly recommended for use in acute care and inpatient rehabilitation but not recommended for use in skilled nursing facilities, outpatient rehabilitation, and home health. This measure should be taught to students and is appropriate for use in research. Below are the psychometrics for the test:

• Concurrent Validity: Acute: Excellent with NIHSS (rho=0.76)

• Construct Validity: Acute: Predictive of UE function at 6 and 24 months later; Predictive of Rivermead Motor Assessment, Oxford Handicap Scale, Barthel Index, and length of stay at 6 and 24 months

• Criterion Validity: Excellent predictive ability of Barthel Index (r square = 0.89); Adequate predictive ability of Functional Recovery Rate

• Cutoff Score: Acute: <3.2 = high likelihood of returning home; 3.2-5.2 = respond well to rehabilitation; >5.3 = dependent with risk for institutionalization

• Interrater Reliability: Chronic and Acute: Excellent (ICC=0.99)

• Intrarater Reliability: Acute: Adequate inter-rater reliability

• Mean Data: Home: Day 7: 3.2, Day 14: 3.2

  • Family’s Home Day 7: 3.6, Day 14: 4.6

  • Retirement Home Day 7: 3.0, Day 14: 2.8

  • Nursing home Day 7: 4.8, Day 14: 5.0

  • Expired: Day 7: 6.0, Day 14: 6.4

  • Transferred to other rehabilitation unit Day 7: 4.0, Day 14: 4.4

• Responsiveness: Predictive value of going home OPS <3 81%

• Test-retest: Excellent (ICC = 0.95)