Reliability And Validity Of The Chinese Version Of The Eating And Drinking Ability Classification System In Preschool Children With Cerebral Palsy

Objective :To determine the reliability and validity of Chinese eating and drinking ability classification system in preschool children with cerebral palsy.To determine the correlation between the Chinese version of the eating and drinking ability classification system and Gross Motor Function Classification System,Manual Ability Classification System and Communication Function Classification System.Methods: A total of 65 children with CP aged 3～7 years who were admitted to the third affiliated hospital of jiamusi university in heilongjiang province were selected.The duration of hospitalization was from December 2018 to December 2019.The test～retest reliability of EDACS and assistance level was determined by analyzing the relationship between the results of locale assessment and video assessment by the most familiar with the children.The assessment results of different evaluators(parents,speech therapists of the most familiar with children(ST1)and the other speech therapists(ST2))were analyzed to determine the interrater reliability of EDACS and assistance level.The convergent validity of EDACS was determined by the score of the Dysphagia Disorders Survey(DDS).To determine the correlation between Chinese version of EDACS and other functional classification systems,by analyzing the assessment results of Chinese version of EDACS,Chinese version of GMFCS,Chinese version of MACS and Chinese version of CFCS for children with cerebral palsy.Results: Chinese version of EDACS was found to possess satisfactory test～retest reliability(EDACS:Kw=0.762,EDACS level of assistance:Kw=0.807),Interrater reliability proved substantial between STs(EDACS: Kw=0.741;EDACS level of assistance: Kw=0.808)and was moderate STs and parents(EDACS: Kw=0.590;EDACS level of assistance:Kw=0.635).The EDACS levels correlated strongly with the DDS(Spearman: 0.889).The EDACS correlated strongly with other Ability Classification System,and Spearman correlation coefficient between EDACS L and GMFCS was 0.739,0.787 for MACS,and 0.795 for CFCS.Conclusions: Chinese version EDACS has good interrater reliability in preschool children with cerebral palsy,and therapists and caregivers can easily use this system to grade the dietary function of children with cerebral palsy.It is a safe,effective and reliable classification system with good parallel validity and can be used as a means to assess and detect the dietary ability of preschool children with cerebral palsy.The Chinese version of EDACS is significantly related to GMFCS,MACS and CFCS,which,together with other functional grading systems,can more comprehensively describe the function and activity status of children with cerebral palsy.