Measuring task performance after acquired brain injury: Construct and concurrent validity of "Upper Limb Performance Analysis"

Objective: This preliminary investigation studies selected aspects of validity of the Upper Limb Performance Analysis (ULPA), an occupation-based functional upper limb (UL) measure.

Methods: The study investigated the ULPA–Task Performance Mastery (ULPA-TPM) in 35 community dwelling adults with upper motor neuron syndrome following acquired brain injury and 26 healthy controls. Construct and concurrent validity of the ULPA were determined via group discrimination between adults with and without ABI; and ABI participants who were and were not referred for UL spasticity management with botulinum toxin-A injections (injected and non-injected group). Concurrent validity was examined by investigating the relationships between the ULPA and an existing functional UL measure, the Action Research Arm Test, using Spearman’s rank-order correlation.

Results: Significant differences in UL performance were demonstrated between the ABI and the Control group on all ULPA sub-scales (including: Omission (z = −2.6 to −3.6, rspb = 0.37–0.48), Accuracy (z = −5.8 to −6.0, rspb = 0.78–0.82), Repetition (z = −5.1 to −5.4, rspb = 0.63–0.73) and Timing errors (z = −5.9 to −6.2, rspb = 0.77–0.88). Those in the Injected group demonstrated more task performance errors than the Non-injected group, with significant differences in Accuracy (z = −2.1 to −2.4, rspb = 0.37–0.45), Repetition (z = −2.5 to −2.1, rspb = 0.43) and Timing (z = −2.0, rspb = 0.37).

Conclusions: This study demonstrated good construct and concurrent validity of the ULPA-TPM.