Article

OBJECTIVE: To validate a useful version of the Motor Function Measure (MFM) in
children with neuromuscular diseases aged <7 years old. DESIGN: Two prospective
cohort studies that documented the MFM completion of children aged between 2 and
7 years old. SETTING: French-speaking rehabilitation departments from France,
Belgium, and Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: Healthy children (n=194) and children
with a neuromuscular disease (n=88). INTERVENTIONS: Patients were rated by the
MFM either once or twice by trained medical professionals, with a delay between
the 2 MFMs ranging between 8 and 30 days.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Intra- and
interrater reliability of the MFM. RESULTS: The subtests making up the MFM-32, a
scale monitoring severity and progression of motor function in patients with a
neuromuscular disease in 3 functional domains, were carried out in healthy
children aged 2 to 7 years. Twenty items of the MFM-32 were successfully
completed by these children and were used to constitute the MFM-20. Principal
component analysis of the MFM-20 confirmed the 3 functional domains. Inter- and
intrarater reliability of the 3 subscores and total score were high (intraclass
correlation coefficient >.90), and discriminant validity was good. CONCLUSIONS:
The MFM-20 can be used as an outcome measure for assessment of motor function in
young children with neuromuscular disease.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS