Reliability and Validity of the GMFM-66 in 0- to 3-Year-Old Children with Cerebral Palsy

Authors:
  • WSWang Su-Juan
    Wang Su-Juan
  • LYLiao Yuan-Gui
    Liao Yuan-Gui
  • YHYang Hong
    Yang Hong
  • XXXu Xiu-Juan
    Xu Xiu-Juan
  • SXShao Xiao-Mei
    Shao Xiao-Mei
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Abstract
Shi W, Wang SJ, Liao YG, Yang H, Xu XJ, Shao XM: Reliability and validity of the GMFM-66 in 0- to 3-year-old children with cerebral palsy. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2006;85:141–147. To examine the reliability and validity of a 66-item version of the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-66) to assess the gross motor functions of children <3 yrs old with cerebral palsy. 298 valid samples were obtained from 171 children with cerebral palsy (male 126, female 45, mean age 19 mos, age range 3–36 mos) measured with GMFM-88. Then a 73-item version of GMFM (GMFM-73) special for these children was obtained by Rasch analysis. GMFM-66 score and GMFM-73 scores of each sample were obtained. The reliability and validity of GMFM-66 were evaluated by analyzing the correlation between the scores and between the change scores of these two GMFM versions. The relative precision of GMFM-73 vs. GMFM-66 was also analyzed. The test-retest reliability and interscorer reliability of GMFM-66 were both high. The ICC scores were 0.9666 and 0.9782, respectively. Significant correlations were found between the scores (r = 0.9848, P < 0.001) and between the change scores (r = 0.8700, P < 0.001) of these two versions of GMFM. A 14% less gain in relative precision was achieved when using GMFM-73 vs. GMFM-66. Results indicated that the GMFM-66 had good reliability and validity in assessing the gross motor functions of children <3 yrs old with cerebral palsy. The GMFM-73 derived in the present study did not function significantly better for young children than GMFM-66.