Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version of the Stroke Upper Extremity Capacity Scale (SULCS) in Post-Stroke Patients

Background: The Stroke Upper Limb Capacity Scale (SULCS) is a practical and useful performance-based tool designed to assess upper limb functional capacity, including both basic and advanced movement. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the SULCS in post-stroke patients.Methods: A total of 56 patients with upper limb hemiparesis participated in the study. The Turkish SULCS was administered twice by the same researcher, with a one-week interval between assessments. In addition, the Fugl-Meyer and ABILHAND instruments were used to assess convergent validity.Results: The Turkish SULCS demonstrated strong intra-rater reliability, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of .97 (95% confidence interval: .95-.98). For the total SULCS-Turkish score, the standard error of measurement (SEM) was calculated to be 0.61 (SEM% = 9.76), and the minimum detectable change (MDC) was 1.69. Excellent correlations were also found between the Turkish SULCS and both Fugl-Meyer and ABILHAND scales (r = 0.77 and r = 0.86, respectively).Conclusions: The findings suggest that the Turkish SULCS has strong intra-rater reliability and excellent convergent validity, supporting its use in clinical settings to assess upper limb function in post-stroke patients.