Associations between a functional independence measure (WeeFIM) and the pediatric quality of life inventory (PedsQL4.0) in young children with physical disabilities

Abstract

The WeeFIM and the PedsQL4.0 appear to assess related but different constructs, supporting the need to incorporate complementary measures when measuring general health of children with disabilities.

Relationship between Function and Health-Related Quality of Life of School-Aged Children with Cerebral Palsy

“…Our findings are consistent with Grilli et al 8) who reported that the WeeFIM was not designed to measure a child's psychosocial integration and well-being. Higher cognitive skills do not necessarily lead to psychosocial wellbeing with other children.…”

“…The WeeFIM scores within our study sample indicate that children classified as the GMFCS II, IV, and V had more difficulties with ambulation than with the other subscales of the WeeFIM. However, Grilli et al 8) reported that self-care tasks and social cognition ability were lower than transfer and ambulation. These results are not in accordance with our findings because their sample had different characteristics from those of this study.…”

“…However, in that same study, a fair degree of correlation was found between WeeFIM total score and the disease-specific HQOL measure, the Caregiver Questionnaire (CQ), which suggests some overlap in the constructs of these two assessments 10) . Also, Grilli et al 8) reported that the WeeFIM mobility and selfcare subscales had a fair degree of correlation with the PedsQL-Physical Health Summary Score.…”

“…Most research related to the quality of life or HRQOL, for individuals with CP has shown that physical well-being is positively correlated with mobility and that mobility dose not correlate consistently with psychosocial well-being [4][5][6][7] . Grilli et al 8) reported associations between activities of daily living (ADL) and HRQOL using the functional independence measure (WeeFIM) and the pediatric quality of life inventory (PedsQL4,0) individually for children with global developmental delay. In their study, they concluded that the WeeFIM mobility and self-care areas were each fairly well correlated with PedsQL-Physical Health Summary Score.…”

Tecnologia assistiva para a promoção de atividades da vida diária com crianças em contexto hospitalar

“…Neste sentido, Jankovich et al (2008), ressalta a importância do brincar no desenvolvimento infantil e defende o papel do terapeuta como facilitador do brincar, e Cusick, Lannin e Lowe (2007) certifica a possibilidade do uso da COPM adaptada à criança para avaliar a desempenho ocupacional nas áreas de auto-cuidado, produtividade e atividades de lazer. Grilli et al (2006) já utiliza um instrumento muldimensional para avaliação global em pediatria, baseado na Classificação Internacional de Funcionalidade, Incapacidade e Saúde (CIF). Russell et al (1994) fala da complexidade de elaboração de um teste e do pouco uso que se faz da maioria deles depois de validado.…”