ADL performance of black Americans and white Americans on the assessment of motor and process skills.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), an assessment of personal and domestic activities of daily living (ADL) performance, can be used as a valid, nonbiased tool when assessing black Americans. The participants were 466 blacks and 466 whites drawn from the entire sample of blacks and whites contained in the AMPS database who met the following criteria: (a) were 16 years of age and older; (b) had a notable history of a neurological, musculoskeletal, medical, developmental, cognitive, or psychiatric disorders or were healthy older persons; and (c) resided in North America. The participants were matched according to functional level, gender, diagnosis, and age. Examination for bias included between-group comparison of (a) item difficulty and task challenge hierarchies of the AMPS, (b) goodness-of-fit of the participants to the many-faceted Rasch (MFR) model, and (c) mean ADL motor and ADL process abilities. Both the item difficulty and the task challenge hierarchies remained stable between the two groups. On the ADL Motor scale, 95.3% of the black participants and 92.4% of the white participants demonstrated acceptable goodness-of-fit (MS < or = 1.4, z < 2) to the MFR model. On the ADL Process scale, 91.2% of the black participants and 90.1% of the white participants demonstrated acceptable goodness-of-fit. A significant difference, t(2, 930) = 3.56, p < .01, between the two groups was found in mean ADL process ability, but no significant difference, t(2, 930) = .69, p = .49) was found in mean ADL motor ability. The results of this study support the validity of the AMPS when applied to black Americans.