ACTIVLIM-CP a new Rasch-built measure of global activity performance for children with cerebral palsy.
ACTIVLIM-CP is a quick parent survey that reliably tracks both arm and leg activity in kids with CP.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a new 43-item survey called ACTIVLIM-CP.
Parents answer for kids with cerebral palsy aged 2-18.
Items cover both arm and leg tasks like holding a cup or climbing stairs.
What they found
The tool gave the same score when parents took it twice.
The correlation was 0.98 for reliability and 0.97 for repeatability.
That means the survey is steady enough to trust for treatment choices.
How this fits with other research
Lifshitz et al. (2014) showed kids with physical disabilities join fewer play activities.
Their bad news fits with this good news: ACTIVLIM-CP gives you a quick way to spot who is at risk.
Park et al. (2011) found arm deformities hurt arm function scores.
ACTIVLIM-CP adds leg items, so you get one number for whole-body performance.
Why it matters
You now have a short parent form that captures arm and leg skills together.
Use it at intake and every six months to show progress in one clear graph.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
OBJECTIVE: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) often have upper extremity (UE) and lower extremity (LE) impairments. While tools measuring separately UE and LE abilities are currently used, activities in which UE and LE are used in combination - numerous in everyday life - cannot be assessed because no instrument allows capturing global activity performance in children with CP. This study aimed to develop a clinical tool for measuring their global activity performance using the Rasch model. STUDY DESIGN: The caregivers of 226 children with CP (2-18 years old) answered a 154-item experimental questionnaire. Within 4-6 weeks, 129 of them filled in the questionnaire a second time. Responses were analyzed using the Rasch RUMM2020 software. RESULTS: The final 43 item scale presented a high reliability (R=0.98) and reproducibility (R=0.97). The item difficulty hierarchy was consistent over time and did not vary according to age, gender, or clinical form, allowing the follow-up of children from 2 to 18 years old. CONCLUSIONS: ACTIVLIM-CP is a unidimensional scale specifically developed to measure global activity performance in children with CP providing a reliable tool to follow children's evolution and document changes related to neurorehabilitation, especially where a combination of UE and LE is targeted. Its responsiveness is still to be tested.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2017 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2016.10.005