Concurrent validity and discriminative ability of Dutch performance-based motor tests in 5 to 6 years old children

• Published in: PloS one 2019-11, Vol.14 (11), p.e0224722-e0224722
• Main Authors: de Kroon, Marlou L A, van Kernebeek, Willem G, Neve, Britta F, Ter Veer, Jessica M, Reijneveld, Sijmen A, de Vet, Henrica C W, Toussaint, Huub M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adaptations; Age; Biology and Life Sciences; Child Development - physiology; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Correlation; Cross-Sectional Studies; Elementary schools; Female; Health sciences; Humans; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Motor ability; Motor Skills - physiology; Motor Skills Disorders - diagnosis; Motor task performance; Movement - physiology; Netherlands; Nutrition; People and Places; Physical education; Problems; Reproducibility of Results; Research and Analysis Methods; ROC Curve; Sensitivity; Skills; Social Sciences; Socioeconomic factors; Symptom Assessment - methods; Validity
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224722

To assess the concurrent validity and discriminative ability of total, gross and fine motor (TM, GM and FM) scores of Dutch performance-based motor tests, the Baecke-Fassaert Motor Test (BFMT) and the 8- and 4-Skills Scan (SkSc) with the Movement Assessment Battery (MABC) for children at age 5. 116 Dutch children (40.3% boys) were included. Spearman's rho correlations and area under the curves (AUC) were assessed. Correlations between the TM scores of the tests were strong (absolute values from 0.58 to .65); the correlations between the GM scores and the FM scores between and within tests were weaker (absolute values from 0.30 to 0.45). Related to the cut-off (15th percentile) of the MABC, the AUC of the BFMT, 8- and 4-SkSc, the AUC was 0.853 (95% CI: 0.757-0.949), 0.905 (95% CI: 0.837-0.972) and 0.844 (95% CI: 0.730-0.957), respectively. At optimal cut-offs, the sensitivity and specificity of the BFMT, the 8- and 4-SkSc were 78.6 and 78.4%, 92.2 and 73.2%, 78.6 and 76.3%, respectively. All tests had a reasonably high discriminative ability, but validation with the MABC-2 and adaptations are needed to meet the requirements for screening (i.e. sensitivity ≥80% and specificity ≥90%). The relatively weak correlation between GM and FM scores implies that tests should be normalized and validated for GM and FM ability, separately.