Reliability and validity of the Brachial Plexus Outcome Measure in children with obstetric brachial plexus palsy.

STUDY DESIGN: Clinical measurement and cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Numerous scales have been developed to examine activities of daily living and function in children with brachial plexus palsy. The Brachial Plexus Outcome Measure (BPOM) scale was developed in 2012 by Emily S. Ho and contains 14 items that measure activity and self-evaluation.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The aim of the study was to cross-culturally translate the BPOM scale into Turkish and test its measurement properties in children with brachial plexus palsy.

METHODS: The scale was translated into Turkish using standard cross-cultural translation procedures. Forty-eight children with obstetric brachial plexus palsy (OBPP) were included in psychometric evaluations. Internal structure consistency and test-retest reliability were measured for reliability analyses. For each item on the scale, Cronbach alpha coefficient and item-total score correlations for all subscales were calculated. The scale was administered at baseline and 1 week later by 2 different physiotherapists to evaluate test-retest reliability. Concurrent construct validity was assessed using Pearson correlations between the OBPP and the Mallet classification system.

RESULTS: Eighteen (37.5%) girls and 30 (62%) boys, in total 48 children, whose mean age was 8.7 ± 2.4 (minimum-maximum = 5-14) years were included in the study; 9 (18.9%) have a history of both early microsurgery and tendon transfers and 39 (81.3%) have a history of only tendon transfer. Cronbach alpha ranged from 0.89 to 0.96, and for the whole scale, it was calculated as 0.938.

DISCUSSION: Test-retest reliability was high. Moderate correlations were observed between the measures.

CONCLUSION: The Turkish BPOM scale is a valid and reliable measurement for assessing function in children with OBPP in the Turkish population.