Psychometric testing of a French Canadian version of the MacHAND performance assessment short (MPA-SF) for the adult...

Hand burns represent a frequent injury site, often leading to significant functional limitations. However, there is no systematically validated performance-based outcome (PerfO) assessment for burn survivors, making it difficult to plan, implement, and monitor interventions for hand function. The MacHAND performance assessment short (MPA-S) has recently been proposed as a quick, updated, and globally accessible tool for individuals with traumatic hand injuries and could be a suitable PerfO for hand burns, meriting evaluation. This study aimed to 1) translate the MPA-S and Sollerman Hand Function Test (SHFT) into French Canadian (MPA-SF and SHFT-F), and 2) evaluate the psychometric properties of the MPA-SF, including test-retest, inter-rater, and intra-rater reliability, as well as minimal detectable change with 95 % confidence (MDC95 %) and construct validity by examining its correlation with the French Canadian Burnt Hand Outcome Tool (BHOT-F) and SHFT-F. The secondary objective was to explore the relationship between the MPA-SF, SHFT-F, and BHOT-F scores with % total body surface area (TBSA) burned, presence of hand graft, and hand diagnoses. The translation process followed a standardized forwards-backwards method. Psychometric testing was conducted with 31 participants who sustained hand burns (50 hands). The MPA-SF exhibited excellent reliability and strong positive correlations with the SHFT-F; and weak to moderate negative correlations with the BHOT-F. The intra-rater MDC95 % was 0, and the inter-rater MDC95 % was 4.35 %. These findings suggest that the MPA-SF is a reliable tool for assessing hand function after burns, supporting its use in clinical practice and research. All instruction manuals and training videos are open-source.