The development and validity of the Salford Gait Tool: An observation-based clinical gait assessment tool

Objectives: To develop the construct, content, and criterion validity of the Salford Gait Tool (SF-GT) and to evaluate agreement between gait observations using the SF-GT and kinematic gait data. Design: Tool development and comparative evaluation. Setting: University in the United Kingdom. Participants: For designing construct and content validity, convenience samples of 10 children with hemiplegic, diplegic, and quadriplegic cerebral palsy (CP) and 152 physical therapy students and 4 physical therapists were recruited. For developing criterion validity, kinematic gait data of 13 gait clusters containing 56 children with hemiplegic, diplegic, and quadriplegic CP and 11 neurologically intact children was used. For clinical evaluation, a convenience sample of 23 pediatric physical therapists participated. Interventions: We developed a sagittal plane observational gait assessment tool through a series of design, test, and redesign iterations. The tool's grading system was calibrated using kinematic gait data of 13 gait clusters and was evaluated by comparing the agreement of gait observations using the SF-GT with kinematic gait data. Main Outcome Measures: Criterion standard kinematic gait data. Results: There was 58% mean agreement based on grading categories and 80% mean agreement based on degree estimations evaluated with the least significant difference method. Conclusions: The new SF-GT has good concurrent criterion validity.