It is well known that neurological disorders such as stroke, Parkinson's disease can have a massive impact on a patient's functional ability and independence. A helpful scoring system that can be used alongside history taking and collateral is the Barthel Index.

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This index evaluates function across 10 personal activities, see below, with the result creating a total score out of 100.

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As a rough guide

• 0-20 indicate “total” dependency

• 21-60 indicate “severe” dependency

• 61-90 indicate “moderate” dependency

• 91-99 indicates “slight” dependency