Inter- and Intra-rater Reliability of the Head Control Scale: Brief Report.

PURPOSE

To examine inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the Head Control Scale (HCS).

METHODS

Introduction of the HCS to eight physical therapists in a pediatric post-acute hospital was followed by use in a repeated-measures design across two trials to establish reliability of the raters. Therapists scored the HCS twice within 4 weeks, using videos of infants at both 2 and 6 months of age, one infant described as typically developing and one with atypical development.

RESULTS

For the HCS overall score, reliability was excellent with an inter-rater reliability intraclass correlation coefficient ((ICC) (3,1) = 0.97 (95% confidence interval, 0.899-0.998) and intra-rater reliability ICC (3,1) range = 0.815-1.0. HCS position scores between and within raters ranged from slight to substantial agreement.

CONCLUSION

In this small study of inter- and intra-rater reliability, HCS overall score demonstrated excellent reliability for all raters however, HCS position scores demonstrated some variability, especially for the prone position.