Pain & Central Nervous System Week

Findings in cerebral palsy reported from S.E. Ryan and co-researchers

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"Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2007;88:1436-40. To examine the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Family Impact of Assistive Technology Scale (FIATS) when used to measure the perceptions of parents about important aspects of family life that may be influenced by their children's use of assistive devices. Repeated measure. Homes of 50 participating families. Parents of young children with cerebral palsy. Not applicable. The FIATS. Through an a priori item-reduction process, we reduced the length of the FIATS from 89 to 64 items. We retained 8 of the 9 original subscales. The 8 subscales included the following: autonomy, caregiver relief, contentment, doing activities, effort, family and social interaction, caregiver supervision, and safety. Remaining items of the removed subscale (technology acceptance) correlated well with the subscale total, but did not relate well to the FIATS total score. This construct was retained as a separate but noncontributing scale within the FIATS. The overall FIATS and its 8 contributing subscales had acceptable internal consistencies and test-retest reliabilities. The FIATS shows promise as a homogeneous and reproducible multidimensional measure of dimensions of child and family life," wrote S.E. Ryan and colleagues.

The researchers concluded: "We plan further testing to examine the sensitivity and clinical meaningfulness of change scores on the FIATS."

Ryan and colleagues published their study in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Reliability of the family impact for families of young children of assistive technology scale with cerebral palsy. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2007;88(11):1436-1440).

Additional information can be obtained by contacting S.E. Ryan, Bloorview Kids Rehab, Bloorview Research Institute, 150 Kilgour Rd., Toronto, ON M4G 1R8, Canada.

The publisher of the journal Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation can be contacted at: W B Saunders Co-Elsevier Inc., 1600 John F Kennedy Boulevard, Ste. 1800, Philadelphia, PA 19103-2899, USA.

Keywords: Canada, Toronto, Central Nervous System Disease, Cerebral Palsy, Rehabilitation Research.

This article was prepared by Pain & Central Nervous System Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2008, Pain & Central Nervous System Week via NewsRx.com.