Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Ukrainian version of the ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire

Abstract

Purpose

To develop and cross-culturally validate the Ukrainian version of the ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire by testing its psychometric properties in a sample of Ukrainian children with cerebral palsy.

Methods

The ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire was translated into Ukrainian, cross-culturally adapted, and administered to 113 parents of children with cerebral palsy. The psychometric properties of the Ukrainian version and its cross-cultural validation were investigated through the Rasch rating scale model.

Results

One major misfit has been found for the item “Rolling up a sleeve of a sweater” that further was removed. The item “Putting on a backpack/schoolbag” was split into gender-specific items, separately for girls and for boys, as it was systematically easier for Ukrainian girls. All remaining items contributed to the definition of a unidimensional measure of manual ability. The internal consistency reliability of the scale was high (R = 0.95). No significant floor (4%) and ceiling effects (5%) were observed. Three major differential item functioning items were found across Belgium and Ukraine, highlighting the need to use the Ukrainian calibration of ABILHAND-Kids in Ukraine.

Conclusion

The Ukrainian ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire has good psychometric properties for assessing manual ability in Ukrainian children with cerebral palsy, holding potential to be implemented in clinical practice nationwide.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Cerebral palsy impairs manual ability leading to decreased quality of life and participation.

• Professionals need valid and reliable tools to detect small changes of manual ability during rehabilitation.

• Metric properties and availability of the Ukrainian version of the ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire make it a useful tool in the assessment of children with cerebral palsy.

Keywords:

• Cerebral palsy
• rehabilitation
• cross-cultural validation
• manual ability
• hand function
• self-reported measures
• questionnaire

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.