Reliability of the quality of upper extremity skills test for children with cerebral palsy aged 2 to 12 years

Abstract

Aim: To investigate reliability of the Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test (QUEST) scores for children with cerebral palsy (CP) aged 212 years. Method: Thirty-one QUESTs from 24 children with CP were rated once by two raters and twice by one rater. Internal consistency of total scores, inter- and intra-rater reliability findings for total, domain, and item scores were calculated. Results: Total scores inter-rater reliability, Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was 0.86, and for intra-rater reliability, ICC was 0.96. Domains had high reliability (ICC > 0.80) within raters and between raters except for grasp (moderate at ICC = 0.67). Item inter-rater reliability was moderate or better for 80% of items; item intra-rater reliability was moderate or better for 87% of items. Total score internal consistency was high (a = 0.97). Implications: The QUEST has proven reliability for children with CP aged 18 months to 8 years. This study demonstrates strong reliability for children aged 212 years. © 2012 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc.