Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 25, 2026
Measuring the Functional Abilities of Children Aged 3-6 Years Old with Observational Methods and Computer Tools
Published on: June 20, 2020
Reliability of the Dutch Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI)
Jeltje E Wassenberg-Severijnen1, Jan W H Custers, Joop J Hox
1Institute for the Study of Education and Human Development, Utrecht University, Faculty of Social Sciences, M&S, PO Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. J.Wassenberg@fss.uu.nl
Objective:
To evaluate the reliability of the Dutch version of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), an instrument for measuring functional status (capability and performance in self-care, mobility and social function) of young children using parent interviews.
Design:
Inter-interviewer reliability was studied after scoring audiotaped interviews by a second researcher. For test-retest reliability the same parent was interviewed twice within three weeks; in inter-respondent reliability both parents of a child were interviewed independently within a few days. On item level, percentage identical scores were computed, and on scale level intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and Cronbach's alphas were calculated.
Subjects:
Parents of 63 nondisabled and 53 disabled (various diagnosis) children aged between 7 and 88 months were interviewed.
Results:
On scale level, all ICCs were above 0.90 and Cronbach's alpha was 0.89 for the self-care domain, 0.74 for the mobility domain and 0.87 for the social function domain. On item level for the Functional Skills Scale, the mean percentage identical scores varied from 89 to 99, and for the Caregiver Assistance Scale from 54 to 90. Different scores between interviewers resulted partially from ambiguous interpretation of the item and/or the explanation.
Conclusions:
Although small adaptations have to be made, the psychometric properties of the Dutch PEDI are found to be good.
