AGREEMENT BETWEEN PARENTS AND CLINICIANS FOR CHEWING PERFORMANCE LEVEL OF CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

Purpose: The study was aimed to examine the agreement between parents and clinicians for determining chewing performance level in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: This cross sectional study included 50 children with CP and their mothers. The Karaduman Chewing Performance Scale (KCPS) was used to determine chewing performance level in children. Mothers of children with CP scored the level that best describes their child’s chewing performance level twice with one-week interval. An experienced physical therapist in terms of chewing and swallowing disorders was also scored chewing performance level by using the KCPS. Results: The physical therapist and mothers agreed on exactly the same KCPS level in 41 of 50 children (82%). There was an excellent positive correlation between the KCPS scores of the physical therapist and the mothers (r=0.959, p<0.001). There was also a substantial agreement in the KCPS scoring between physical therapist and mothers (p<0.001, k:0.769). There was an excellent positive correlation between two examinations of mothers (r=0.991, p<0.001). Perfect agreement in the KCPS scoring was detected between two examinations of mothers (p<0.001, k:0.846). Conclusion: The agreement between therapists and parents suggests that parents could determine chewing performance level in children with CP. This may provide an efficient and less costly method to perform observational or community screening studies to define children’s chewing performance, especially when evaluation of a clinician is not feasible.