Aim The aims of the study were to (1) build new item banks for a revised version of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) with four content domains: Daily Activities, Mobility, Social/Cognitive, and Responsibility and 2) use post-hoc simulations based on the combined normative and disability calibration samples to assess the accuracy and precision of the PEDI computerized adaptive tests (PEDI-CAT) in comparison to the administration of all items. Methods Parents of typically developing children (n=2,205) and parents of children with disabilities (n=703) between ages 0 to 21 years, stratified by age and gender participated by responding to PEDI-CAT surveys through an existing Internet Opt-in Survey Panel in the USA and by computer tablets in clinical sites. Results Confirmatory factor analyses supported four unidimensional content domains. Scores using the real data post-hoc demonstrated excellent accuracy (ICCs ≥0.95) with the full item banks. Simulations using item parameter estimates demonstrated relatively small bias in the 10- and 15-item CAT versions; error was generally higher at the scale extremes. Interpretation These results suggest the PEDI-CAT can be an accurate and precise assessment of children’s daily functioning at all functional levels.

Important limitations, including ceiling effects and relatively low sensitivity to change and responsiveness, were noted across all balance measures, highlighting their limited utility across the full spectrum of the community-dwelling elderly population. New, more challenging measures are needed for better discrimination of balance ability in community-dwelling elderly people at higher functional levels.

Overall, the AM-PAC-CAT's Basic Mobility scale demonstrated excellent psychometric properties while the Daily Activity scale demonstrated less adequate psychometric properties when applied in this outpatient sample. The mean length of time to complete the Basic Mobility scale was 1.9 minutes, using, on average, 6.6 items per CAT session, and the mean length of time to complete the Daily Activity scale was 1.01 minutes, using on average, 6.8 items. BACKGROUND AND CONCLUSION: Overall, the findings are encouraging, yet they do reveal several areas where the AM-PAC-CAT scales can be improved to best suit the needs of patients who are receiving outpatient orthopedic physical therapy of the type included in this study.

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Purpose To examine the discriminant validity, test-retest reliability, administration time and acceptability of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory Computer Adaptive Test (PEDICAT). Method A sample of 102 parents of children three through 20 years of age with (n=50) and without (n=52) disabilities was recruited for this prospective field study. A sub-sample (n=25) also completed the PEDI-CAT a second time within one month. Parents completed 15 questions in each of the four PEDI-CAT domains (Daily Activities, Mobility, Social/Cognitive, Responsibility) using a laptop computer. Following completion, parents were asked four questions as part of a User Evaluation Survey. Results The PEDI-CAT was able to differentiate between groups of children with and without disabilities based on parent responses in all four domains. Test-retest reliability results were high (ICC=0.96 -0.99) for all four domains. The mean time to complete 60-items for the full sample (n=102) was 12.66 minutes (SD=4.47). Parents reported favorable reactions to the PEDI-CAT and were especially enthusiastic about the new Responsibility domain. Conclusions The PEDI-CAT offers a valid and reliable assessment acceptable to parents.