AN INVESTIGATION OF INTRA-OBSERVER RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE GILLETTE FUNCTIONAL GAIT ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE IN CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

Purpose: Gait is affected by sensorial and motor impairments in Cerebral Palsy (CP). Apropriate gait must be evaluated for improving and normalizing gait function during treatment. In this study, our purpose is to investigate the intrarater validity and reliability of the Gillette Functional Gait Assessment Questionaire (Gilette-FAQ) commonly used in clinically. Methods: 70 children between 5 and 18 years were included in this study. Gilette-FAQ was asked to family twice fifteen days interval for intrarater-reliability. Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-88) D and E sub-dimensions and pediatric functional independence measurement (WeeFIM) were used for construct validity and Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) was used concurrent validity. Cronbach alpha (a) coefficient was calculated. Alpha was accepted as enough between 0.70 and 0.95. Results: The mean age was 8.15±3.81 years. 72.9% of children was spastic, 20% was dyskinetic, 5.7 % was ataxic and 1.4% was hypotonic type of CP. Intra-class correlation (ICC) value was found 0.99 in test-retest reliability and internal consistency of Gilette-FAQ. There were positive strong correlations between Gilette-FAQ and GMFM-D, E (r=0.94, r=0.94, p<0.01); Gilette-FAQ and WeeFIM motor and total score (r=0.91, r=0.88, p<0.01). The results of one way ANOVA showed that Gilette-FAQ scores of GMFCS levels were different (p<0.05). Statistical difference was found between GMFCS levels in Post-hoc test (p<0.05). Conclusion: Gilette-FAQ was valid and reliable among the parents of children with CP for evaluating functional gait and determining rehabilitation results according to results