AMAT was developed in 1988 by McCulloch [1] to measure the qualitative and quantitative aspects of a range of activities of daily living (ADL) in stroke patients receiving rehabilitation by induced constraint.
It was created to supplement the WMFT, which has the advantage of being quantitative and measuring performance variables of time and strength, but is not linked to improvements in ADL.
Initially composed of 17 items [1], it was later reduced to 13 [2] and 9 items [3] to facilitate its use in clinical practice.
Each task is divided into 1-3 sub-tasks or movements, and the elements of each task may involve different contributions of the two arms, or the distal and proximal part of the paretic arm.
The various components of each task are timed individually, but each task is performed fluidly, continuously. Patients are not aware of the division of tasks.
2 scales relevant to motor recovery are used: the functional or FA Ability (ability to perform the task) and the quality of movement or QoM (how the task is performed).
Scores range from 0 to 5 (5 : the movement is normal). Example: the "cutting meat" task is divided into: take the knife and fork, then cut the meat and finally put the fork in the mouth.
The instructions for each task are first read and then the evaluator performs the task three times, using the same arm as the paretic side of the patient. The patient then performs the task without any possible training.
Each task is limited to 60 or 120 seconds (arbitrarily).
The median is calculated for all the time taken, and the average scores for FA and Qom.
The AMAT does not require specialized hardware but is quite long to perform and requires training of evaluators that can last up to 32 hours depending on the study [2].
> Access to the scale is free
