2017 Volume 8 Pages 37-43
Onogi K, Kondo I, Asagai Y, Saitoh E. Differences in evaluation of functional skills of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) between normally developing children and children with cerebral palsy. Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 2017; 8: 37-43.
Objective: The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) provides functional skills scales based on the data obtained from normally developing children. In the present study, we performed an analysis of children with cerebral palsy using the same methodology as set originally to examine differences in discrete skill items between the two groups of children.
Methods: Six hundred and two children with cerebral palsy were divided into groups based on the severity of disorder as described in the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS). The scaled scores for the PEDI functional skills were computed by Rasch analysis.
Results: Correlation coefficients between the scaled scores of children with cerebral palsy and those presented in the PEDI original data were r = 0.890 for self-care, r = 0.795 for mobility, and r = 0.943 for social function. In children in GMFCS level I, discrete scores increased with age, whereas in children in levels III, IV, and V, scores for mobility almost reached the plateau in the age band of 4 to <6 years.
Discussion: In the difficulty level of functional skills, the greatest difference was observed in mobility, suggesting the need to establish a difficulty level of functional skills that is adapted to the abilities of children with cerebral palsy.
