ADL assessment of nondisabled Turkish children with the WeeFIM instrument.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the WeeFIM instrument's reliability and internal construct validity for the Turkish child population.


METHODS
License was taken from UDSmr to use the WeeFIM instrument. For the reliability and validity studies of the Turkish translation of the WeeFIM instrument, 573 Turkish nondisabled children were included in the study. The reliability of the instrument was assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and test-retest reliability. Internal construct validity was assessed by both using Rasch unidimensional measurement model and testing for differential item functioning for age and gender.


RESULTS
Cronbach alpha value was 0.99 for motor WeeFIM rating and 0.99 for cognitive WeeFIM rating. ICC was 0.81 for motor WeeFIM rating and 0.92 for cognitive WeeFIM rating. The internal construct validity of the Turkish translation of the WeeFIM instrument was confirmed by excellent fit to the Rasch measurement model. Two subscales were found from the principal component analysis of standardized residual correlation for items. Among the items, bowel management, bladder management, eating, and comprehension showed considerable levels of misfit.


CONCLUSIONS
The Turkish translation of the WeeFIM instrument is valid, reliable, and practical for the Turkish child population. Further studies are required to determine the cross-cultural validity of the instrument.
Aybay
Canan
C
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ankara Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
Erkin
Gulten
G
Elhan
Atilla H
AH
Sirzai
Hulya
H
Ozel
Sumru
S
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014421:Turkey