The WeeFIM instrument: Its utility in detecting change in children with developmental disabilities

Ottenbacher, Kenneth J.; Msall, Michael E.; Lyon, Nancy; Duffy, Linda C.; Ziviani, Jenny; Granger, Carl V.; Braun, Susan; Feidler, Roger C.

doi:10.1053/apmr.2000.9387

Cited by 125 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Given the prevalence of these environmental and biological risks and the importance of optimizing the outcomes of these at-risk children, incorporating functional assessment by community health nurses could direct family and/or school interventions and reveal concurrent health or motor problems. The WeeFIM has been successfully used to document change over time in the preschool years in a diverse cohort of children with motor, communicative, health, and developmental challenges (Ottenbacher et al, 2000). Advanced practice nurses may find that the WeeFIM is a helpful way to track progress in their young, vulnerable clients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Performance of Preterm Children at Age 4

Sullivan¹,

Msall²

2007

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Functional performance, a child's ability to perform the tasks of daily living and to fulfill expected social roles, is now recommended in follow-up of preterm children. This study examined neonatal, preschool health, and motor effects on functional performance at age 4. The sample of 155 infants, classified by perinatal morbidity and birth weight, was assessed during a home visit. Neonatal illness, socioeconomic status, preschool health, and motor predictors explained 44% of the variance in functional performance. Functional performance is a useful clinical measure to understand how well preterm children perform age-expected daily activities as well as the family burden of preterm sequelae.Technological advances have resulted in improved survival rates for pre-term infants; yet, this is moderated by a growing concern for a greater prevalence of neurodevelopmental morbidity on the daily lives of these children (Aylward, 2005;Hack & Fanaroff, 1999;Vohr & Msall, 1997). Functional assessment, primarily used with adults, has been recommended in preterm follow-up as a measure of the overall burden of preterm morbidity (Saigal et al., 1994;Vohr & Msall, 1997). However, functional assessment of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) survivors has received little empirical study (Hack, Taylor, Klein, & Minich, 2000;Msall, Tremont, & Ottenbacher, 2001). The concept of functional performance refers to the child's ability to perform the tasks of daily living and to fulfill expected social roles (McCabe & Granger, 1990;Vohr & Msall, 1997). In children, these tasks include feeding, dressing, bathing, toileting, moving inside and outdoors, communicating, playing, remembering routines, and interacting with others (Vohr & Msall, 1997). Social roles include peer group activities, school attendance and achievement, and community participation. In preterm children, functional performance represents the junction of a child's abilities and limitations and, thus, can provide critical data about the pathways to their assets and challenges and variation in outcomes (Msall & Tremont, 2000;Msall et al., 2001). Common sequelae of prematurity, motor delays, and subnormal health may affect functional performance. For example, a child who is clumsy or uncoordinated in gross and/or fine motor movement may not be able to button, zip, toilet independently, or play outdoors in developmentally appropriate sports activities. Thus, we can anticipate an additive effect of health status and motor abilities on functional performance. PURPOSEIn this study, we examine functional performance as an outcome and explore its relationships with health and motor outcomes for preschool preterm children born with varying birth weights and perinatal morbidities. We test the effect of perinatal morbidity © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Mary C. Sullivan, PhD, RN, University of Rhode Island, White Hall, Kingston, RI 02892. mcsullivan@uri.edu. (birth weight and neonatal illness) and preschool (age 4) healt...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Performance of Preterm Children at Age 4

Sullivan¹,

Msall²

2007

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is part of the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation. It has extensive evidence of reliability, validity, and responsiveness to change during inpatient rehabilitation for children and youth with TBI (Chen et al, 2005;Massagli et al, 1996;Ottenbacher et al, 1996Ottenbacher et al, , 1997Ottenbacher et al, , 2000Rice et al, 2005;Swaine et al, 2000;Ziviani et al, 2001), with established normative data (Msall et al, 1994). The WeeFIM is the pediatric downward extension of the FIMÔ (Granger, 1998), which was recommended as a core measure for adults with TBI (Wilde et al, 2010), but scoring criteria are somewhat different to account for developmental differences.…”

Section: Adaptive and Daily Living Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recommendations for the Use of Common Outcome Measures in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Research

McCauley

Wilde

Anderson

et al. 2012

Journal of Neurotrauma

282

207

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article addresses the need for age-relevant outcome measures for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research and summarizes the recommendations by the inter-agency Pediatric TBI Outcomes Workgroup. The Pediatric Workgroup's recommendations address primary clinical research objectives including characterizing course of recovery from TBI, prediction of later outcome, measurement of treatment effects, and comparison of outcomes across studies. Consistent with other Common Data Elements (CDE) Workgroups, the Pediatric TBI Outcomes Workgroup adopted the standard three-tier system in its selection of measures. In the first tier, core measures included valid, robust, and widely applicable outcome measures with proven utility in pediatric TBI from each identified domain including academics, adaptive and daily living skills, family and environment, global outcome, health-related quality of life, infant and toddler measures, language and communication, neuropsychological impairment, physical functioning, psychiatric and psychological functioning, recovery of consciousness, social role participation and social competence, social cognition, and TBI-related symptoms. In the second tier, supplemental measures were recommended for consideration in TBI research focusing on specific topics or populations. In the third tier, emerging measures included important instruments currently under development, in the process of validation, or nearing the point of published findings that have significant potential to be superior to measures in the core and supplemental lists and may eventually replace them as evidence for their utility emerges.

show abstract

“…This instrument has been tested and shown to be valid and reliable for children more than 6 months old with neurodevelopmental disabilities including spina bifida and Down syndrome. [27][28][29][30][31][32] WeeFIM is a self-administered parent instrument composed of 18 items and 6 domains (self-care, sphincter control, transfers, locomotion, communication, and social cognition). 33 The WeeFIM allows patients to be stratified into areas of function from severely impaired to normal.…”

Section: Instruments and Study Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of life of children with neurological impairment who receive a fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease

Srivastava

Downey

Feola

et al. 2007

Journal of Hospital Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUNDChildren with neurological impairment (NI) commonly have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) treated with a fundoplication. The impact of this procedure on quality of life is poorly understood.OBJECTIVESTo examine the quality of life of children with NI who have received a fundoplication for GERD and of their caregivers.METHODSThe study was a prospective cohort study of children with NI and GERD who underwent a fundoplication at a children's hospital between January 1, 2005, and July 7, 2006. Quality of life of the children was assessed with the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) and of the caregivers with the Short‐Form Health Survey Status (SF‐36) and Parenting Stress Index (PSI), both at baseline and 1 month after fundoplication. Functional status was assessed using the WeeFIM®. Repeated‐measures analyses were performed.RESULTSForty‐four of the 63 parents (70%) were enrolled. The median WeeFIM® score was 31.2 versus the age‐normal score of 83 (P = .001). Compared with the baseline scores, mean CHQ scores improved over 1 month in the domains of bodily pain (32.8 vs. 47.5, P = .01), role limitations–physical (30.6 vs. 56.6, P = .01), mental health (62.7 vs. 70.6, P = .01), family limitation of activities (43.3 vs. 55.1, P = .03), and parental time (43.0 vs. 55.3, P = .03). The parental SF‐36 domain of vitality improved from baseline over 1 month (41.3 vs. 48.2, P = .001), but there were no changes from baseline in Parenting Stress scores.CONCLUSIONSParents reported that the quality of life of children with NI who receive a fundoplication for GERD was improved from baseline in several domains 1 month after surgery. The quality of life and stress of caregivers did not improve in nearly all domains, at least in the short term. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2007;2:165–173. © 2007 Society of Hospital Medicine.

show abstract

The WeeFIM instrument: Its utility in detecting change in children with developmental disabilities

Cited by 125 publications

References 23 publications

Functional Performance of Preterm Children at Age 4

Functional Performance of Preterm Children at Age 4

Recommendations for the Use of Common Outcome Measures in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Research

Quality of life of children with neurological impairment who receive a fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About