The Development and Content Validation of Brief International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Category Sets for 6 - 12-Year-Old Children with Cerebral Palsy, from the Perspective of Iranian Occupational Therapists

Background: There is uncertainty in identifying which aspects of functioning should be prioritized in the clinical brief assessment of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Brief ICF category sets specify the essential aspects of functioning that should be addressed in such assessments. Objectives: This study aimed to develop five brief ICF category sets based on the functional limitations of children with CP, as viewed by Iranian occupational therapists (OTs). Methods: This cross-sectional, multi-method study was conducted from January to May 2022 in Iran. Nineteen OTs were recruited through purposive sampling for a Delphi process, and ten OTs through snowball sampling for an expert panel, all experienced in CP and ICF. The Delphi involved two rounds of electronic surveys, where participants identified categories that should be minimally addressed in brief assessments of children aged 6 - 12 with CP based on their functional limitations. The content validity of these sets was then quantitatively evaluated by the expert panel. Results: Most confirmed categories in the gross and fine motor brief sets pertained to body structure and function, while those in the eating-and-drinking and communication-function brief sets related to cognition and motor reflexes. Categories in the visual function brief set pertained to activity, participation, and environmental factors. Content validity ratio (CVR) and item-content validity indexes (I-CVI) ranged from 0.80 to 1 across all categories/brief sets, with scale-content validity index/Average (S-CVI/Ave) ranging from 0.95 to 0.98. Conclusions: These functional-based ICF brief sets are the first developed for children with CP in this age group and provide occupational therapists with tools to address crucial aspects of functioning, tailored to specific functional limitations. However, cultural biases and the generalizability of these brief sets remain limitations.