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J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2004;75:388-395 doi:10.1136/jnnp.2003.017509
  • Paper

A short scale for the assessment of motor impairments and disabilities in Parkinson’s disease: the SPES/SCOPA

  1. J Marinus1,
  2. M Visser1,
  3. A M Stiggelbout2,
  4. J Martin Rabey3,
  5. P Martínez-Martín4,
  6. U Bonuccelli5,
  7. P H Kraus6,
  8. J J van Hilten1
  1. 1Department of Neurology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  2. 2Department of Medical Decision Making, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  3. 3Department of Neurology, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Zerefin, Israel
  4. 4Neuroepidemiology Unit, Department of Applied Epidemiology, National Center for Epidemiology I.S. Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
  5. 5Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Pisa, Italy
  6. 6Department of Neurology, St Josef University Hospital, Bochum, Germany
  1. Correspondence to:
 J J van Hilten
 Department of Neurology (K5Q 94), Leiden University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9600, NL-2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands; j.j.van_hiltenlumc.nl
  • Received 25 April 2003
  • Accepted 9 June 2003
  • Revised 6 June 2003

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Short Parkinson’s Evaluation Scale (SPES)/SCales for Outcomes in Parkinson’s disease (SCOPA)—a short scale developed to assess motor function in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Methods: Eighty five patients with PD were assessed with the SPES/SCOPA, Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) scale, and Schwab and England (S&E) scale. Thirty four patients were examined twice by two different assessors who were blinded to each other’s scores and test executions. Additionally, six items of the motor section of the SPES/SCOPA were assessed in nine patients and recorded on videotape to evaluate inter-rater and intra-rater reliability.

Results: The reproducibility of the sum scores in the clinical assessments was high for all subscales of the SPES/SCOPA. Inter-rater reliability coefficients for individual items ranged from 0.27–0.83 in the motor impairment section, from 0.58–0.82 in the activities of daily living section, and from 0.65–0.92 in the motor complications section. Inter-rater reliability of the motor items in the video assessments ranged from 0.70–0.87 and intra-rater reliability ranged from 0.81–0.95. The correlation between related subscales of the SPES/SCOPA and UPDRS were all higher than 0.85, and both scales revealed similar correlations with other measures of disease severity. The mean time to complete the scales differed significantly (p<0.001) and measured 8.1 (SD 1.9) minutes for the SPES/SCOPA and 15.6 (SD 3.6) minutes for the UPDRS.

Conclusion: The SPES/SCOPA is a short, reliable, and valid scale that can adequately be used in both research and clinical practice.

Footnotes

  • This study was financially supported by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO; project no. 0940-33-021).

  • Competing interests: none declared

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