Reliability of the Turkish adaptation of the Modified House Classification System in children with cerebral palsy

Objective:The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Modified House Classification System (MHCS) in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: Forty-five patients were evaluated by two physicians and the intra-rater reliability within a subgroup of 21 patients was assessed. Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were also analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and Spearman's rank-order correlation test was used to indicate an association between the Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) and the MHCS. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha. Results: Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability and internal consistency of the MHCS were found to be excellent with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.89 and ICC value of 0.97 and 0.98 respectively. A significant correlation was found between the MACS and MHCS (p<0.001, r= -0.805). Conclusion: The inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of Turkish version of the MHCS were found to be high regarding the assessment of Turkish children with CP.