Cross-cultural validation of the Persian version of the Manual Ability Classification System for children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the reliability and cross-cultural validation of the Persian translation of the Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) for children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: After the forward-backward translation procedures and investigation of face and content validity, inter-rater and test-retest reliability was assessed between parents and occupational therapists using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Parents and therapists classified 100 children (4–18 years, mean age of 8.13 years, SD=3.40, 63 boys, 37 girls) with various types of CP using MACS. Additional data on the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), and accompanying conditions were also collected. Findings: The inter-rater reliability was high; the ICC was 0.96 (ranged between 0.94–0.97) among occupational therapists and parents. The ICC for the test-retest reliability was high; the ICC related to parents was 0.97 (ranged between 0.95–0.98) and the ICC related to occupational therapists was 0.97 (ranged between 0.96–0.98). Discussion: The Persian version of MACS is found to be valid and reliable, and is suggested to be appropriate for assessing the manual ability of children with CP within the Iranian population.