title: An examination of adolescent bone tumor patient responses on the Activities Scale for Kids (ASK).
abstract: This study provides an examination of responses on the Activities Scale for Kids, performance version (ASKp), for evaluating physical function in adolescents with malignant lower extremity bone tumors. Twenty-one participants (ages 10.4 to 17.9 years), who had tumor resection surgery, completed the ASKp on two occasions. ASKp data were examined for ceiling and/or floor effects, item distributions, and Not Applicable (NA) responses, as well as textual comments. Ceiling effects were 12.5% and 19%, and 0% demonstrated floor effects. The extreme response options were chosen most frequently, and approximately one third of respondents used NA more than 10% of the time. Overall, this population demonstrated moderately high NA rates and higher than anticipated ceiling effects on the ASKp. These data suggest that caution should be taken when interpreting item-level data in this population and further studies guiding the scoring and interpretation of NA responses are recommended.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Rehabilitation Services, Hospital for Sick Children , Toronto, ON , Canada.
authors.forename: P Janine
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Piscione
authors.forename: Aileen M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D035002:Lower Extremity; D008297:Male; D009864:Ontario; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D016896:Treatment Outcome