Cross-cultural validation of Activities Scale for Kids: the performance of healthy Italian children

BACKGROUND: The assessment of physical performance is a key element in the rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities, and understanding patients' perception of their abilities is of foremost importance for the success of the whole process. The Activities Scale for Kids performance (ASKp) is one of the few reliable and responsive outcome measures that allows children and adolescents to accurately report their physical functioning in typical activities for this age. The performance version of the ASKp has recently been translated and culturally adapted to the Italian context. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was implemented to describe the ASKp score distribution in a population of Italian school aged individuals. RESULTS: A population of 209 Italian children with a mean age of 10.96 years (SD 2.92, range 5-15) participated in this study during the academic year 2017/18. The ASKp score ranged from 52.58 to 100, with a mean value of 89.07 points (SD 10.57). Scores greater than 90 were attained for 57.4% of participants, confirming the ceiling effect of this assessment tool when administered in healthy children (95% CI: 50.4-64.2%). The ASKp was able to differentiate between different levels of physical performance according to different developmental ages (P<0.001), and it confirmed the ability to distinguish between children with typical development and those with disability (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide the first evidence of construct validity of the Italian version of the ASKp. These results will help clinicians to interpret ASKp scores of children with musculoskeletal limitations.