Is the Arabic version of the WeeFIM instrument reliable and feasible enough to measure functional independence in Egyptian children with burns?

Abstract Purpose The adaptation of the Arabic WeeFIM instrument to an interview format suitable for burned children with communicative and/or cognitive problems with evaluation of its feasibility and reliability. Methods An observational study with two measurements within a 2-week time period in a sample of 53 patients with healed burns who were aged 3 to 16 years. Feasibility was evaluated by the assessment of the frequency of missing answers per item and administration time. The reliability was assessed by a test-retest procedure. For content validity, experts were asked to complete all questions in the Arabic Index of Content Validity (ICV). Results The Arabic version of WeeFIM has borderline reliability (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.619 and Pearson correlation coefficient: r = 0.986). There was an acceptable percent to have a feasible test as 83.963% of the filled questionnaires had no missing answers and 16.037% had missing answers. The ICV showed that all the questions were relevant except for two questions: Question 15, for expression, and question 18, for memory. Conclusion The Arabic version of WeeFIM has high test-retest reliability, borderline internal consistency, and excellent feasibility in measuring the functional outcome of burned children.