Development and validation of the MAnchester Needs Tool for Injured Children (MANTIC).

OBJECTIVE

To develop a measure of the needs injured children and their families' needs throughout recovery; The MAnchester Needs Tool for Injured Children (MANTIC).

DESIGN

Tool development, psychometric testing.

SETTING

Five children's major trauma centres in England.

PARTICIPANTS

Children aged 2 to 16 years with any type of moderate/severe injury(ies) treated in a major trauma centre within 12 months of injury, plus their parents.

METHODS

: Interviews with injured children and their parents to generate draft items. : Feedback about item clarity, relevance and appropriate response options was provided by parents and the patient and public involvement group. : Completion of the prototype MANTIC by injured children and their parents with restructuring (as necessary) to establish construct validity. Concurrent validity was assessed by correlation with quality of life (EQ-5D-Y). MANTICs were repeated 2 weeks later to assess test-retest reliability.

RESULTS

: Interviews (13 injured children, 19 parents) generated 64 items with semantic differential four-point response scale (strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree). : One hundred and forty-four participants completed MANTIC questionnaires (mean age 9.8 years, SD 3.8; 68.1% male). Item responses were strong requiring only minor changes to establish construct validity. Concurrent validity with quality of life was moderate ( = 0.55,  < 0.01) as was test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.46 and 0.59,  < 0.001). Uni-dimensionality was strong (Cronbach's  > 0.7).

CONCLUSION

The MANTIC is a feasible, acceptable, valid self-report measure of the needs of injured children and their families, freely available for clinical or research purposes.