2.5. Functional Evaluation
upper-limb dexterity, LCD
The Fugl-Meyer Assessment of the Upper Limbs (FMA-U/L) was used to evaluate upper-limb functionality. The FMA-U/L score is a tool for evaluating the body’s structure, function, and activity level as an evaluation tool for evaluating motor function according to Brunnstrom’s recovery phase in Step 6 [Box and block tests (BBT) assessed upper-limb dexterity. The BBT consists of cubical pieces of wood 2.54 cm long and a rectangular box with a partition in the center 53.7 × 8.5 × 27.4 cm in size. The intra-rater reliability of the BBT is 0.96, and the inter-rater reliability is 0.99 [A force gauge (300 lb hydraulic digital hand dynamometer with LCD, Base-line Evaluation Instruments, New York, NY, USA) was used to measure grip force. Seated in a chair, the participants attached their elbows to the trunk, maintained 90 degrees in the elbow joint, and remained neutral in the forearm and wrist position. To obtain the maximum value, the number of times the hand was applied was measured thrice for each participant [The Korean version of the modified Barthel index (K-MBI) was used to evaluate activities of daily living. The K-MBI consists of seven personal handling items and ambulation and three items related to personal hygiene, bathing, eating, toilet treatments, climbing stairs, dressing, bowel control, walking, wheelchairs, artificial limbs, and moving beds. The evaluation method involves instructing the participants on each item and observing their responses. Each action was scored on a five-point scale, with a perfect score of 100 points, 0–20 points for complete dependence, 21–61 points for heavy dependence, 62–90 for moderate dependence, 91–99 for mild dependence, and 100 points for full independence. The intra-rater reliability was 0.87, and the inter-rater reliability was 0.93 [