ABSTRACT
Objective To determine the minimal clinically important differences ( MCID) of chinese version of the Fugl-Meyer( FM) motor scale for evaluating the motor function of the stroke patients ( upper extremity, lower ex-tremity and total) . Methods The research used anchor-based methods and distribution-based methods together to determine the MCID of chinese version of the FM motor scale. Results The intra-rater retest reliabilities of chinese version of the FM motor scale of motor functions were 0. 997, 0. 989 and 0. 997 for upper extremity, lower extremi-ty, and the total. The inter-rater retest reliabilities were 0. 993, 0. 952 and 0. 990 respectively. The MCID of chi-nese version of FM motor scale were 4. 58 , 3. 31 and 6. 0 . Conclusion The MCID of chinese version of the FM motor scale which could be gained in this study can help both clinical and research staff to identify whether the im-proved effect of motor function, which assessed by chinese version of the FM motor scale, made sense or not in clinical trials or in clinical practice.