Responsiveness and discriminant validity of the Child and Adolescent Scale of Participation across three years for children and youth with traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To examine responsiveness and discriminant validity of the Child and Adolescent Scale of Participation (CASP) across three years. Methods: Examined longitudinal data on 515 children and youth with TBI and arm injuries. Repeated measures analyses of variance were used to examine CASP scores (pre-injury; 3, 12, 24, 36 months post-injury). Results: Scores decreased from pre-injury to 3 months, but significantly only for moderate and severe TBI groups. Scores gradually increased post-injury for all groups except severe TBI. Scores were consistently lowest for severe TBI, followed by moderate TBI, mild TBI, and arm injury across time. Severe TBI scores were significantly lower than scores for mild TBI and arm injury, but not moderate TBI. Conclusions: CASP scores were responsive to change over time at most measurements and differentiated between groups, particularly severe TBI. Further research is needed with a larger sample of children with moderate/severe TBI as they were underrepresented in this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Activity participation
• disability
• measurement
• pediatric
• youth

Acknowledgments

We thank Fred P. Rivara, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, who provided selected de-identified data to us to examine the psychometric properties of the CASP from his prior longitudinal study (CDC grant R49 CE 001021). We also thank Mrs. Haya Fogel-Grinvald, School of Occupational Therapy of Hadassah and the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, who provided statistical consultation.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest or funding regarding publication of this paper.

Additional information

Funding

We thank Fred P. Rivara, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, who provided selected de-identified data to us to examine the psychometric properties of the CASP from his prior longitudinal study (CDC grant R49 CE 001021).