Preliminary evaluation of the reliability, validity and feasibility of the arm activity measure - Thai version (ArmA-TH) in cerebrovascular patients with upper limb hemiplegia.

BACKGROUND

Upper limb hemiplegia following cerebrovascular diseases can result in significant functional limitation. To assess such functional disturbance requires a comprehensive, valid and reliable tool. The Arm Activity Measure (ArmA) is a comprehensive, valid and reliable self-report questionnaire to assess real-life function for upper limb hemiplegia. However, it has never been translated for use in different languages. The purpose of this study is to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Arm Activity Measure (ArmA) questionnaire into a Thai version and to evaluate content validity, internal consistency and feasibility.

METHODS

The ArmA was translated and culturally adapted according to published cross-cultural adaptation guidelines resulting in the Thai version of ArmA (ArmA-TH). Forty Thai patients with upper limb hemiplegia resulting from cerebrovascular disorders participated in field-testing of the ArmA-TH. Its feasibility was evaluated. Content validity index for item (I-CVI) and score (S-CVI) were examined. Inter-rater reliability was evaluated by Gwet's AC2. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

RESULTS

Forty patients (29 males, 11 females) with upper limb spasticity due to stroke or TBI were included. The average age of patients was 54.5 years (SD 15.0). Twenty-seven patients (67.5%) completed the questionnaire within 5 min or less, average time taken was 4.45 (1.73) min. For both subscales, patients reported the ArmA-TH to be relevant (85%) and easy to use (67.5%). More than 80% of patients found the passive subscale useful, almost 80% found the active subscale useful. Overall S-CVI was 0.83, S-CVI for passive and active function subscale was 0.79 and 0.86 respectively. The inter-rater reliability coefficients for ArmA-TH was 0.81. Cronbach's alpha was 0.90 for the overall ArmA, 0.89 and 0.88 for the passive and active function subscales.

CONCLUSIONS

The ArmA-TH was a feasible self-report questionnaire to assess hemiplegic upper limb function with good content validity, inter-rater reliability and internal consistency.