Lower extremity functional scale
What It Measures
The Lower Extremity Functional Scale asks how much difficulty a person is having with twenty everyday activities that need working legs — walking between rooms, putting on shoes, squatting, getting in and out of a bath, running on uneven ground, making sharp turns.
Items are ordered by increasing physical demand, which lets the same questionnaire work for someone recovering from a hip replacement and someone returning to sport. Each is rated 0 to 4, from extreme difficulty or unable to no difficulty, for a total out of 80 where higher means better function. It applies across the whole lower limb rather than to one joint, so the same measure follows a person whether the problem is at the hip, knee, ankle, or foot.
Further Reading
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes:The scale is reproduced without restriction across clinical resources and requires no equipment or training.
Learn More: The change thresholds are what make the LEFS useful for documentation. A pooled systematic review across musculoskeletal conditions gives a minimal detectable change (MDC90) of 6 points and a minimal clinically important difference of 9 points. Test-retest reliability is excellent (ICC 0.85–0.99 across studies, 0.94 in the original). Scores can also be reported as a percentage of maximum function, which some clinicians prefer for patient-facing communication.
