Objectives: To examine the reliability and validity of a Chinese version of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory in children with cerebral palsy.
Design: A prospective study.
Subjects: Two samples: 58 children with cerebral palsy (mean age 65.4 (standard deviation 29.9) months) and 89 normally developing children (mean age 43.5 (standard deviation 20.6) months).
Methods: The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory was translated and cross-culturally adapted into a Chinese version. The test-retest reliability, concurrent validity and discriminative validity were examined.
Results: Internal consistency was high (Cronbach's alpha: 0.90-0.99). Test-retest reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.982-0.998). The concurrent validity was good, as evidenced by the high correlation between the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory and the Functional Independence Measure for Children (Spearman's rho: 0.92-0.99). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory factor scores estimated by confirmatory factor analysis differentiated the children with cerebral palsy from normally developing children.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the Chinese version of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory has good reliability and validity and provides support for its use in Chinese-speaking children with cerebral palsy.