Cross-cultural adaptation of the West and Central African version of the ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire for children with cerebral palsy.

Abstract

To adapt a West and Central African version of the widely used ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire for measuring manual ability in children with cerebral palsy (CP). This cross-sectional study included 136 children with CP from Benin (<i>n</i> = 67) and Cameroon (<i>n</i> = 69). Data were collected from parents using an experimental version with 64 items. A subsample of 107 parents responded again two weeks later. Calibration was based on the Rasch model using RUMM2030 software. The adapted version of ABILHAND-Kids consists of 21 items with well-discriminated response categories. It defines a unidimensional and linear measure of children's performance in daily activities involving upper extremities (mean chi-square = 41.87, <i>p</i> = 0.48). The measure is invariant across countries, parents' education, children's age and gender, MACS levels, and type of CP. It shows excellent internal consistency (<i>R</i> = 0.94) and high test-retest reliability for both item difficulty hierarchy (ICC = 0.98) and children's measures (ICC = 0.99). Significant correlations were found with the MACS (rho = -0.64), Box and Blocks Test (more-affected (<i>r</i> = 0.55), less-affected hand (<i>r</i> = 0.54)), and ACTIVLIM-CP-WA (<i>r</i> = 0.83). The West and Central African version of ABILHAND-Kids is valid and reliable for assessing the manual ability of children with CP in daily activities within the African sociocultural context. Implications for RehabilitationThe West and Central African version of ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire offers a valid and reliable measurement of manual ability in daily life activities in the African context.As a Rasch-built scale, linear measures allow manual ability changes to be quantified in African children with cerebral palsy from 3 to 19 years.Its high measurement precision and availability (https://www.rehab-scales.org) enable manual ability assessment in West and Central African children with cerebral palsy, whatever parents' education and children's age, gender, manual ability levels, and type of cerebral palsy.