Jongjit Jithathai, Komsopapong Ladda, Saikaew Thedkean, Wanich Udomporn, Chewapanich Suliphon, Udomsubpayakul Umaporn, Ruangdaraganon Nichara
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Pediatr Int. 2006 Apr;48(2):132-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1442-200X.2006.02183.x.
The Functional Independence Measure for children (WeeFIM) is a new instrument for evaluating functionality in disabled children aged 9-100 months. It was developed to determine a child's functional capacity and performance. With no baseline information about Thai children, it is difficult to assess whether a patient is initially high or low with respect to function.
The aim of this study, therefore, was to evaluate the interrater, intrarater reliability and appropriateness of the use of the WeeFIM and to establish a normative data profile suitable for Thai children. The WeeFIM is an instrument used to assess independence in self-care, sphincter control, transfer, locomotion, communication, and social cognition.
Direct interviews were conducted in the communities for 569 normal Thai children (289 girls and 280 boys) aged 6-100 months. The interrater and intrarater reliability scores were examined. The WeeFIM total and domain scores increased progressively with age. Intraclass correlation coefficients for the reliability for the WeeFIM domain score ranged from 0.90 to 0.99. Total WeeFIM intraclass correlation coefficients values were greater than 0.97 for all analyses. The authors classified the 18 items into six groups according to the degree of correlation with age. Most items were highly correlated with age as indicated by a Spearman's correlation coefficient greater than 0.8. The interrater and intrarater reliability of the WeeFIM subscores was high.
The current study demonstrated that WeeFIM could be employed as a useful and reliable instrument for assessing functional independence for Thai children. Therefore, usage of WeeFIM with different age criteria for achieving independence should be adopted. Normative functional independence measures for a large group of Thai children will enhance the knowledge base about their development measurement and provide a database for future investigations on clinical population in Thailand.
儿童功能独立性测量量表（WeeFIM）是一种用于评估9至100个月残疾儿童功能的新工具。它旨在确定儿童的功能能力和表现。由于缺乏关于泰国儿童的基线信息，很难评估患者在功能方面最初是高还是低。
因此，本研究的目的是评估WeeFIM的评分者间信度、评分者内信度以及使用的适宜性，并建立适合泰国儿童的常模数据概况。WeeFIM是一种用于评估自我护理、括约肌控制、转移、移动、沟通和社会认知方面独立性的工具。
对社区中569名6至100个月的正常泰国儿童（289名女孩和280名男孩）进行了直接访谈。检查了评分者间信度和评分者内信度得分。WeeFIM总分和各领域得分随年龄逐渐增加。WeeFIM领域得分的信度组内相关系数范围为0.90至0.99。所有分析中，WeeFIM总分的组内相关系数值均大于0.97。作者根据与年龄的相关程度将18个项目分为六组。如Spearman相关系数大于0.8所示，大多数项目与年龄高度相关。WeeFIM子得分的评分者间信度和评分者内信度较高。
当前研究表明，WeeFIM可作为评估泰国儿童功能独立性的有用且可靠的工具。因此，应采用具有不同年龄标准的WeeFIM来实现独立性。一大群泰国儿童的功能独立性常模测量将增强有关其发育测量的知识库，并为泰国未来对临床人群的研究提供数据库。
