Abstract
Purpose: To cross-culturally adapt the ABILHAND-Kids into Arabic and to examine its measurement properties in children with cerebral palsy.
Materials and methods: The Cross-cultural adaption of the ABILHAND-Kids into Arabic language included forward translation, backward translation, expert committee followed by preliminary testing. Structural validity using Rasch analysis, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, measurement error, and construct validity of the Arabic ABILHAND-Kids were examined in children with cerebral palsy (N = 154; 54% male, mean age 7.4 years).
Results: Rasch analysis did not support the structural validity of the Arabic ABILHAND-Kids mainly due to response dependency. Removal of two items addressed the issue of the response dependency and resulted in a unidimensional scale meeting the requirement of the Rasch model. The scale had excellent internal consistency (Person Separation Index = 0.93) and excellent test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.98). The results supported 86% of the predefined hypotheses regarding correlation of the Arabic ABILHAND-Kids with the manual ability classification system, gross motor function classification system and the functional independence measure for children.
Conclusion: The Arabic ABILHAND-Kids demonstrated adequate evidence supporting its structural validity as a unidimensional measure along with evidence supporting its internal consistency, test-retest reliability and construct validity as a measure of manual ability in children with cerebral palsy.
Implications for rehabilitation
The Arabic ABILHAND-Kids is a reliable and valid measure of manual ability in children with cerebral palsy.
The Arabic ABILHAND-Kids can be used to quantify manual ability in children with cerebral palsy in clinical practice and for research purposes.