Validity and reliability of the Selective Control of the Upper Extremity Scale in children with upper motor neuron lesions.

Abstract

We evaluated the validity and intra-, inter-, and test-retest reliability of the Selective Control of the Upper Extremity Scale (SCUES) sum and item scores in patients with upper motor neuron lesions. Thirty-one boys and 15 girls (mean age ± SD: 11 years 1 month ± 3 years 9 month) with upper motor neuron lesions participated. We correlated SCUES scores with the range of motion items of the Melbourne Assessment 2 (MA2) and Box and Block Test (BBT) to establish concurrent validity and compared scores between the more and less affected side for discriminative validity. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) and smallest detectable changes (SDC) indicated relative and absolute reliability. For the more affected side, SCUES sum scores correlated well with MA2 (<i>ρ</i> = 0.83) and BBT (<i>ρ</i> = 0.77), and reliability proved high for intra-rater (ICC = 0.93, SDC = 2.55), inter-rater (ICC = 0.86, SDC = 3.58), and test-retest (ICC = 0.98, SDC = 1.41) reliability. Reliability of single items varied from 0.64 (inter-rater elbow) to 0.98 (intra-rater elbow). Limb and item scores were lower for the more affected side. The SCUES limb and item scores seem valid and reliable in children with upper motor neuron lesions. While future studies should evaluate the responsiveness of the SCUES, we recommend that the same rater should score a patient twice.Implications for rehabilitationThe SCUES assesses selective voluntary motor control and appears valid and reliable in patients with upper motor neuron lesions.Test-retest reliability of the SCUES seems excellent.SCUES single item scores show concurrent validity and acceptable reliability.Limb and item scores are significantly lower for the more affected side.