Test-retest reproducibility of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills for school-aged children with acquired brain injuries

Abstract

Background Persistent impairments resulting from childhood acquired brain injury (ABI) can impact performance of activities of daily living (ADL). Objective and reliable measures of ADL skills are required for treatment planning and research. Aim To evaluate test-retest reproducibility of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) for children with ABI. Methods Twenty-eight children with ABI (mean age 11 years 7 months, SD 2 years 4 months; males = 11) were recruited. Two AMPS tasks were performed over two consecutive days, as per standardized AMPS procedures. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC; 2,1), standard error of measurement (SEM), smallest detectable difference (SDD), and 95% limits of agreement (Bland-Altman) were calculated. Results Test-retest reliability was fair to good for AMPS ADL motor (ICC 0.55) and ADL process (ICC 0.58) measures. The SEM was 0.36 and 0.34 logits for AMPS ADL motor and ADL process measures respectively. The SDD was 1.0 (motor) and 0.93 logits (process) measures. A learning effect was evident. Conclusion Test-retest reproducibility of the AMPS was fair to good for children with ABI, which is poorer than previously published data. Administration of the AMPS in an unfamiliar environment, fatigue, and the small time interval between testing sessions may have contributed to poorer results. The AMPS remains a useful measure of ADL, contributing to our understanding of task execution processes.

Keywords: Activities of daily living; evaluation; occupational therapy; paediatric; reliability.