Investigation of interobserver reliability of the Gillette Functional Assessment Questionnaire in children with spastic diparetic cerebral palsy.
OBJECTIVE
Information obtained from families is of particular importance in the evaluation of functional mobility skills of children with cerebral palsy (CP) after orthopedic interventions and long-term rehabilitation applications. This study was designed to evaluate the interobserver reliability of the Gillette Functional Assessment Questionnaire (FAQ) which was administered to the mothers and the physiotherapist for children with CP.


METHODS
The study included 52 spastic diparetic children with CP (22 girls, 30 boys; mean age 7.8+/-4.4 years; range 4 to 12 years) and their mothers. According to the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), all the children were in level 1 to 3. The Gillette FAQ was administered to the mother and physiotherapist to determine the functional walking level of the child and the interobserver reliability of the FAQ was calculated. In addition, gross motor performance was evaluated by the standing and walking-running-jumping dimensions of the Gross Motor Performance Measure (GMPM), and functional independence level was evaluated by the transfer and locomotion dimensions of the Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM). Correlations were sought between the FAQ results of the physiotherapist and mothers and the GMFCS, GMPM, and WeeFIM.


RESULTS
The intraclass correlation coefficient for interobserver reliability of the Gillette FAQ was 0.94 (95% CI 0.898-0.966). A highly significant correlation was found between the responses of the mother and physiotherapist to the Gillette FAQ (r=0.882, p<0.01). The responses of the mother and physiotherapist to the Gillette FAQ showed a negative correlation with the GMFCS level, and positive correlations with the dimensions of the GMPM and WeeFIM studied (p<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The Gillette FAQ can be used by the physiotherapists to determine the functional changes in spastic diparetic children with CP and can help clinicians derive important information from the families about functional walking of their children.
Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. mintaze@hacettepe.edu.tr
Mintaze Kerem
MK
Günel
Tülay
T
Tarsuslu
Akmer
A
Mutlu
Ayşe
A
Livanelioğlu
D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000145:classification* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D020380:Needs Assessment; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology