• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Newsletter/Updates
  • Contact Us
  • Policies

Bone and Spine

Orthopedic health, conditions and treatment

  • General Ortho
  • Procedures
  • Spine
  • Upper Limb
  • Lower Limb
  • Pain
  • Trauma
  • Tumors

Lower Extremity Functional Scale – Method and Interpretation

By Dr Arun Pal Singh

In this article
    • Method of Evaluating the Patient – the Questionnaire
    • Scoring and Interpretation
    • References
      • Related

Lower extremity functional scale is a test that consists of a questionnaire to evaluate the function of the lower limb in case of musculoskeletal condition or disorder. The test can be used to measure initial function, ongoing progress, and outcome.

The lower extremity functional scale was developed in 1999 by Binkley et al. when they were evaluating a group of patients with musculoskeletal disorders.

The areas of assessment include

  • Activities of daily living
  • Balance – non-vestibular coordnination
  • Functional mobility
  • Life participation
  • Occupational performance
  • Quality of life
  • Range of motion and strength.

The scale is used for measuring lower extremity function in a wide variety of disorders and treatments. It can also be used in cases of the stroke where lower limb functions are affected.

It can be used to monitor the patient over time and to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention.

The range of possible scores is 0-80, with 4 being the maximum score for each question.

Method of Evaluating the Patient – the Questionnaire

lower extremity functional scale
Lower extremity functional scale questionnaire

The patient is given a paper containing questions with an option to mark one of the following choices for each question.

The questionnaire contains 20 questions about a person’s ability to perform everyday tasks which include

  1. Any of your usual work, housework or school activities.
  2. Your usual hobbies, recreational or sporting activities.
  3. Getting into or out of the bath.
  4. Walking between rooms.
  5. Putting on your shoes or socks
  6. Squatting
  7. Lifting an object, like a bag of groceries from the floor.
  8. Performing heavy activities around your home
  9. Performing light activities around your home
  10. Getting into or out of a car
  11. Walking 2 blocks
  12. Walking a mile
  13. Going up or down 10 stairs (about 1 flight of stairs)
  14. Standing for 1 hour
  15. Sitting for 1 hour
  16. Running on even ground
  17. Running on uneven ground
  18. Making sharp turns while running fast
  19. Hopping
  20. Rolling over in bed

A sample questionnaire is provided in the image.

For each question, there are five possible answers with scores given accordingly

  • Extreme Difficulty or Unable to Perform Activity- Score Zero
  • Quite a Bit of Difficulty – Score 1
  • Moderate Difficulty- Score 2
  • A Little Bit of Difficulty- Score 3
  • No Difficulty- Score 4

Scoring and Interpretation

A total is calculated by adding the score for individual questions.

The maximum score is 80.

The score from the individual questionnaire is calculated as a percentage

A fully functional lower limb will have score 80 and thus in % the score would be

Lower Extremity Function Score: [80 / 80]X100 = 100.0 %

In another example, a patient having score 64 would have a score as follows

[64 / 80]X100 = 80%

Thus, the higher the score, the better is the patient activity.

The lower the score the greater the disability

When doing sequentially, a minimal detectable change of  9 scale points is considered significant

The  Test-retest reliability of the score has been found to be was 0.94.

The limitation of the scale is that it is not possible to assess the status of pre-disease physical function. Because the answers to the questions that pertain to past status are based on the recall and it brings in recall bias.

References

  • Binkley J M, Stratford P W, Lott S A, Riddle D L. The Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS): scale development, measurement properties, and clinical application. North American Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Research Network. Phys Ther 1999; 79(4): 371–83.
  • Stratford P, Hart D, Binkley J, Kennedy D, Alcock G, Hanna S. Interpreting lower extremity functional status scores. Physiother Can 2005; (57): 154–62.

Related

Spread the Knowledge
1
Share
 
1
Share
1    

Filed Under: Lower Limb

About Dr Arun Pal Singh

Arun Pal Singh is an orthopedic and trauma surgeon, founder and chief editor of this website. He works in Kanwar Bone and Spine Clinic, Dasuya, Hoshiarpur, Punjab.

This website is an effort to educate and support people and medical personnel on orthopedic issues and musculoskeletal health.

You can follow him on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter

Primary Sidebar

Browse Articles

Meniscofemoral ligaments

 Meniscofemoral ligaments – Humphery and Wisberg Ligaments

Meniscofemoral ligaments are straight bands of collagen that attach to the posterior horn of lateral meniscus and lateral part of medial femoral condyle. While some consider them one ligament with two bands others consider them as two distinct ligaments. These ligaments are named based on their location in relation to the posterior cruciate ligament. The […]

Anatomy of Brachial Plexus

Brachial Plexus Anatomy

The brachial plexus is a network of nerves formed by the anterior rami of the lower four cervical nerves and first thoracic nerve roots and proceeds through the neck, the axilla, and into the arm. The nerves coming out from this supply upper limb and shoulder girdle. Structure of Brachial Plexus The brachial plexus consists […]

Man with genu valgum following knee injury

Genu Valgum Causes, Evaluation and Treatment

The term genu valgum or valgus knee is used to describe knock-knee deformity. Knock-knee deformity is commonly seen as-as a passing trait in otherwise healthy children but some individuals retain or develop this deformity due to hereditary, metabolic or other causes. As genu valgum is a normal physiologic process in children, therefore it is critical […]

Xray and MRI of tuberculosis of knee joint. Multiple foci are shown with arrows.

Tuberculosis of Knee Joint – Diagnosis and Treatment

Tuberculosis of knee joint is third common osteoarticular tuberculosis after spine and hip. Knee tuberculosis or commonly called TB knee accounts for nearly 10 percent of all skeletal tuberculosis. Relevant Anatomy of Knee Joint The knee joint is the largest joint in the body. It is a superficial joint and because of its large size […]

First Cervical Vertebra -Atlas

Atlas or First Cervical Vertebra [C1]

Atlas is the first cervical vertebra that sits just below the skull. It is also called C1 vertebra. Along with axis, the second vertebra and C7, it falls into the group of atypical cervical vertebrae. Atypical because these have unique features. Axis and C7 or vertebra prominens are discussed separately. Atlas is unique in its […]

Grade IV KL OA

Knee Osteoarthritis Symptoms and Treatment

This article focuses on Knee Osteoarthritis. For details on Osteoarthritis, read Osteoarthritis Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment Knee osteoarthritis is can result in severe pain and disability, and affect activities like walking even for short distances or climbing stairs. Like all other osteoarthritides, knee osteoarthritis takes a quite some time to develop and worsens gradually. Earlier […]

radiofrequency neurotomy

Radiofrequency Neurotomy – Indications and Procedure

A radiofrequency neurotomy is the use of radiofrequency energy mediated heat to ablate the nerve responsible for facet joint pain or sacroiliac joint pain caused by arthritis or other degenerative changes, or from an injury. Ablation if the nerve beaks the pain signals to the brain, thus eliminating pain. The term radiofrequency ablation is also […]

© Copyright: BoneAndSpine.com
Manage Cookie Consent
The site uses cookies. Please accept cookies for a better visiting experience.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
 

Loading Comments...