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Pediatric assessment scale for severe feeding problems: validity and reliability of a new scale for tube-fed children
William Crist1, Cindy Dobbelsteyn, Anne Marie Brousseau
1Feeding and Nutrition Clinic, IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3J 3G9. william.crist@iwk.nshealth.ca
Insights
The Pediatric Assessment Scale for Severe Feeding Problems demonstrates adequate validity and reliability for assessing children with feeding difficulties. This tool helps clinicians track progress from tube feeding to oral feeding.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric feeding disorders
- Clinical assessment tools
- Child development
Background:
- Severe feeding problems in children often necessitate prolonged tube feeding.
- Assessing progress in oral eating skills is crucial for these children.
- A new parent-report measure, the Pediatric Assessment Scale for Severe Feeding Problems, was developed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the validity and reliability of the Pediatric Assessment Scale for Severe Feeding Problems.
- To determine the measure's effectiveness in assessing children with varying degrees of feeding difficulties.
Main Methods:
- Parents of three groups of children (completely tube-fed, partially tube-fed, non-tube-fed with feeding difficulties) completed the questionnaire.
- Reliability was assessed by a subset of parents completing the measure a second time.
- Data from 74 children were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Mean scores varied significantly across groups: 7.3 (completely tube-fed), 30.0 (partially tube-fed), and 46.8 (non-tube-fed).
- The correlation between repeated administrations of the measure was high (.98), indicating strong reliability.
- The scale ranges from 0 to 66.
Conclusions:
- The Pediatric Assessment Scale for Severe Feeding Problems shows adequate validity and reliability.
- This new measure can assist clinicians in rating initial feeding difficulty severity.
- It facilitates tracking children's progress towards oral feeding.
Background:
This study reports data on the validity and reliability of a new parent report measure, the Pediatric Assessment Scale for Severe Feeding Problems, designed to assess progress in the development of oral eating skills for children who need prolonged tube feeding.
Methods:
The questionnaire was completed by parents of 3 groups of children. The first group consisted of 17 children who received all of their nutrition by tube feedings, a second group of 30 children who were oral eaters but required supplementation by tube feedings, and a third group of 27 children who were referred for feeding difficulties but were not receiving any tube feeding. A subset of parents from each group completed the measure a second time approximately 2 to 4 weeks after completing the initial questionnaire in order to examine the reliability of the measure.
Results:
The mean scores (scale of 0 to 66) on the measure were 7.3 for completely tube-fed children, 30.0 for partially tube-fed children, and 46.8 for referred, non-tube-fed children. The correlation between first and second administration of the measure was .98.
Conclusions:
The validity and reliability of the Pediatric Assessment Scale for Severe Feeding Problems appears to be adequate. The new measure should allow clinicians to better rate initial severity of feeding difficulties and to track the progress of children as they advance from being totally tube-fed to completely orally fed.
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