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Reliability of the Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2001

Melinda Randall
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
John B Carlin
Affiliation:
Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
Patty Chondros
Affiliation:
Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
Dinah Reddihough
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
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Abstract

This study examines the reliability of the Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function: a quantitative test of quality of movement in children with neurological impairment. The assessment was administered to 20 children aged from 5 to 16 years (mean age 9 years 10 months, SD 2 years 10 months) who had various types and degrees of cerebral palsy (CP). The performances of the 20 children during assessment were videotaped for subsequent scoring by 15 occupational therapists. Scores were analyzed for internal consistency of test items, inter- and intrarater reliability of scorings of the same videotapes, and test–retest reliability using repeat videotaping. Results revealed very high internal consistency of test items (α=0.96), moderate to high agreement both within and between raters for all test items (intraclass correlations of at least 0.7) apart from item 16 (hand to mouth and down), and high interrater reliability (0.95) and intrarater reliability (0.97) for total test scores. Test–retest results revealed moderate to high intrarater reliability for item totals (mean of 0.83 and 0.79) for each rater and high reliability for test totals (0.98 and 0.97). These findings indicate that the Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function is a reliable tool for measuring the quality of unilateral upper-limb movement in children with CP.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
© 2001 Mac Keith Press

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