Reliability and validity of the Eating and Drinking Ability Classification System (EDACS) for children with cerebral palsy in Taiwan

Abstract

Purpose: The study was to assess the inter-and intra-rater reliability, construct validity and utility of the Eating and Drinking Ability Classification System (EDACS). Methods: EDACS was translated into in Taiwan using an interactive process. Agreement between health professionals and teachers when using EDACS was assessed using Kappa and the Intraclass Correlation Co-efficient. Results: Paired ratings of 4 (13%) health professionals (either speech or occupational therapists) and 26 (87%) teachers were obtained for 53 children with CP aged 6.7 years (SD 4.1 years), who worked in six education institutions. The raters used EDACS independently to classify children's eating and drinking ability and re-classified children's eating and drinking abilities after one month. Pairs of raters showed substantial agreement for the EDACS level at the first assessment (k ¼ 0.75; absolute agreement ¼ 81%; ICC ¼ 0.94) and the second assessment (k ¼ 0.70; absolute agreement ¼ 77%; ICC ¼ 0.95). The intra-rater reliability of EDACS level showed almost perfect agreement at rater 1 (k ¼ 0.87; absolute agreement ¼ 91%) and rater 2 (k ¼ 0.87; absolute agreement ¼ 91%). Conclusions: We conclude that the Chinese version of EDACS is valid and reliable to be easily used by health professionals and teachers to classify functional eating and drinking abilities in children with cerebral palsy. ä IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONThe Chinese version of EDACS is valid and reliable to be easily used. EDACS can be used by health professionals and teachers to classify functional eating and drinking abilities in children with cerebral palsy. The EDACS is analogous to other functional classification systems (i.e., GMFCS, MACS and CFCS) and specifically represents eating and drinking ability.

A study on the relationship between motivation and psychological state during preparation for the examination

“…The commonly used reliability test indexes are Cronbach's alpha coefficient [13] , fold-half reliability [14] and retest reliability [15] . The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the first survey result of the PMS was 0.926, the folded reliability was 0.887, and the retest reliability was 0.901.…”

Mini‐EDACS: Development of the Eating and Drinking Ability Classification System for young children with cerebral palsy

“…Content, construct, and concurrent validity of the EDACS have been demonstrated, alongside evidence that it is broadly reliable in clinical and research contexts when used by experienced clinicians and parents for individuals aged 3 to 22 years. [11][12][13][14] EDACS has been translated into more than 22 languages and validated in Chinese, 15 German, 13 and Dutch. 12 EDACS describes functional eating and drinking ability for people with CP from 3 years in two distinct ordinal scales.…”