ORIGINAL ARTICLE  EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CLINICAL MEDICINE 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2020 July;60(7):1014-9

DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.20.10466-3

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Cross-cultural validation of Activities Scale for Kids: the performance of healthy Italian children

Stefania COSTI ^{1, 2, 3} ✉, Barbara BRESSI ^{4, 5}, Silvio CAVUTO ⁶, Luca BRAGLIA ⁶, Adriano FERRARI ^{2, 3}, Elisa PELOSIN ¹

¹ Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal Child Health, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; ² Unit of Children Rehabilitation for Severe Developmental Disabilities - UDGEE, Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale - IRCCS of Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy; ³ Surgical, Medical and Dental Department of Morphological Sciences Related to Transplants Oncology and Regenerative Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy; ⁴ Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale - IRCCS of Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy; ⁵ University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy; ⁶ Research and Statistics Infrastructure, Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale - IRCCS of Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy

BACKGROUND: The assessment of physical performance is a key element in the rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities, and understanding patients’ perception of their abilities is of foremost importance for the success of the whole process. The Activities Scale for Kids performance (ASKp) is one of the few reliable and responsive outcome measures that allows children and adolescents to accurately report their physical functioning in typical activities for this age. The performance version of the ASKp has recently been translated and culturally adapted to the Italian context.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was implemented to describe the ASKp score distribution in a population of Italian school aged individuals.
RESULTS: A population of 209 Italian children with a mean age of 10.96 years (SD 2.92, range 5-15) participated in this study during the academic year 2017/18. The ASKp score ranged from 52.58 to 100, with a mean value of 89.07 points (SD 10.57). Scores greater than 90 were attained for 57.4% of participants, confirming the ceiling effect of this assessment tool when administered in healthy children (95% CI: 50.4-64.2%). The ASKp was able to differentiate between different levels of physical performance according to different developmental ages (P<0.001), and it confirmed the ability to distinguish between children with typical development and those with disability (P<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide the first evidence of construct validity of the Italian version of the ASKp. These results will help clinicians to interpret ASKp scores of children with musculoskeletal limitations.

KEY WORDS: Reference values; Patient outcome assessment; Child; Cross-cultural comparison; Activity of daily living