Needs, problems and rehabilitation goals of young children with cerebral palsy as formulated in the rehabilitation activities profile for children.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the content of needs, problems and goals of 41 Dutch children with cerebral palsy using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) as a classification system. To evaluate the adherence of formulations of needs, problems and goals to specifications of the Rehabilitation Activities Profile for Children.


METHODS
Raw text data were extracted and organized. Two raters independently weighed the entries' quality against the specifications and linked the extracted content to ICF-CY categories.


RESULTS
In 12% of the reports no needs, and in 24% no principal goals, were formulated. Needs mostly pertained to the activities-and-participation domain (65%), whereas problems and goals covered all 3 ICF-CY domains. None of the needs were prioritized and 79% met the quality criterion of description of a problem/desire. Twenty-four percent of the problems were described in the activity-and-participation domain and 83% referred to a treatable problem. Fifty-six percent of the goals were formulated in terms of intended result/effect and 63% as child/parent actions.


CONCLUSIONS
Insight is provided into the content of rehabilitation programmes for children with cerebral palsy. To optimize the quality of the reports, research on reasons for non-adherence to specifications of the Rehabilitation Activities Profile is needed.
Nijhuis
Bianca J G
BJ
Center for Rehabilitation, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. B.Nijhuis@uu.nl
Reinders-Messelink
Heleen A
HA
de Blécourt
Alida C E
AC
Ties
Jans G
JG
Boonstra
Anne M
AM
Groothoff
Johan W
JW
Nakken
Han
H
Postema
Klaas
K
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000145:classification / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D012047:Rehabilitation Centers / Q000458:organization & administration; D000078329:Workforce