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ABILOCO-Kids: a Rasch-built 10-item questionnaire for assessing locomotion ability in children with cerebral palsy
Gilles D Caty1, Caty D Gilles, Carlyne Arnould
1Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Université catholique de Louvain, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, venue Hippocrate 10, Brussels, Belgium. Gilles.Caty@uclouvain.be
Insights
The ABILOCO-Kids questionnaire effectively measures locomotion in children with cerebral palsy. Developed using the Rasch model, it shows good reliability and validity, with parents providing more precise assessments than children.
Area of Science:
- Rehabilitation Medicine
- Pediatric Neurology
- Measurement Science
Background:
- Cerebral palsy (CP) significantly impacts children's locomotion.
- Accurate assessment tools are crucial for targeted interventions.
- Existing measures may not fully capture the spectrum of locomotive abilities in pediatric CP populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate the ABILOCO-Kids questionnaire.
- To assess locomotion ability in children with cerebral palsy using the Rasch measurement model.
- To create a reliable and reproducible measurement tool for pediatric rehabilitation.
Main Methods:
- Prospective study involving 113 children with cerebral palsy.
- Development of a 41-item questionnaire based on existing scales and clinical expertise.
- Analysis using the Rasch model (RUMM-2020) for item selection and model fit.
Main Results:
- The final 10-item ABILOCO-Kids scale demonstrated high reliability (r=0.97) and reproducibility (ICC=0.96).
- Parental ratings provided a more precise assessment of children's locomotion than self-reports.
- The scale exhibited good concurrent validity, correlating well with the Gross Motor Function Classification System.
Conclusions:
- The ABILOCO-Kids questionnaire possesses strong psychometric properties.
- It is a valid and reliable tool for measuring diverse locomotion abilities in children with cerebral palsy.
- The findings support its use in clinical practice and research for this population.
Objective:
To develop a questionnaire (ABILOCO-Kids) based on the Rasch measurement model that assesses locomotion ability in children with cerebral palsy.
Design:
Prospective study and questionnaire development.
Subjects:
A total of 113 children with cerebral palsy (10 (standard deviation 2.5) years old).
Methods:
A 41-item questionnaire was developed based on existing scales and on the clinical experience of professionals in the field of rehabilitation. This questionnaire was tested separately on the 113 children with cerebral palsy and their parents. Their responses were analysed using the Rasch model (RUMM-2020) to select items that had an ordered rating scale and that fit a unidimensional model.
Results:
The final ABILOCO-Kids scale consisted of 10 locomotion activities, of which difficulty was rated by the parents. The parents gave a more precise assessment of their children's ability than the children themselves, leading to a wider range of measurement that was well-targeted on the sample population and that had good reliability (r=0.97) and reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.96). Item calibration did not vary with age, sex or clinical presentation (hemiplegia, diplegia, quadriplegia). The concurrent validity of the ABILOCO-Kids questionnaire was also shown by its correlation with the Gross Motor Function Classification System.
Conclusion:
The ABILOCO-Kids questionnaire has good psychometric qualities for measuring a wide range of locomotion abilities in children with cerebral palsy.
