A systematic review of measures of activity limitation for children with cerebral palsy

This systematic review critically appraises the literature on the psychometric properties and clinical utility of evaluative activity limitation outcome measures used for children with cerebral palsy (CP). The search strategy yielded 29 articles for eight outcome measures that met the inclusion criteria for the review. The Gross Motor Function Measure and Activities Scale for Kids were found to have sound psychometric properties in most areas. Reliability was found to be adequate for all tools. For the CP population, further examination of some aspects of validity is required for the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ), Functional Assessment Questionnaire (FAQ), Functional Mobility Scale (FMS), Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory, Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI), and the Functional Independence Measure for Children. The FAQ, CHQ, FMS, and PODCI were found to require further examination for responsiveness. Clinical utility of the measures varied. The FMS was the only one to differentiate between function in the home, school, and community and to consider different assistive devices. These findings suggest that a range of measures is required to evaluate activity, and assessment should be tailored to the individual needs of children with CP.