The validity of a road test after stroke.

OBJECTIVES To determine the validity of a road test performed by stroke patients in Belgium and to reestablish its reliability. DESIGN Prospective study of a predriving evaluation. SETTING University hospital in Belgium. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-eight patients with sequelae of first-ever stroke. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Performance in the Stroke Driver Screening Assessment (SDSA) and on a road test. RESULTS Interrater reliability of the road test subitems was moderate to substantial (weighted kappa range, .44-.78). Item-per-item reliability varied from moderately high (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=.63) to very high (ICC=.87). The reliability of the overall performance in the road test was very high (ICC=.83). For the criterion validity of the road test, 78.9% of the subjects were correctly classified when the judgments of the principal evaluator were compared with outcomes of the SDSA. Agreement in classification between the principal evaluator and a state-registered evaluator's judgments was 81.6%. The sensitivity and specificity of the agreement were very high (80.6%) and perfect (100%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS The road test is a reliable and valid test of driving ability after stroke.