Results from a recent study support the ecological validity for physical performance tests for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), particularly balance tests and particularly for men. Furthermore, the observation that many indicators of everyday function derived from self-report items (SROs) were related to physical performance supports the routine use of SROs in clinical practice to guide therapy to meet the needs of clients with MS. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on a random sample of men (n=48) and women (n=140) with MS. Correlations between pairs of performance tests of physical function (PerfO) and SRO pairs of variables with theoretical coherence were calculated and gender effects identified using linear regression. Researchers found:

• The mean age of the participants was 43 (SD:10).
• 60 PerfO and SRO items yielded 165 theoretically linked pairs separately for women and men.
• Of these, 330 possible pairs, 77 pairs (23%) had correlations ≥0.8, showing strong support for the link between performance tests and everyday function; 203 pairs provided moderate support (r≥0.5).
• 31 pairs had a statistically significant interaction with gender with men having higher correlations than women (n=27/31).