Construction and validation of the fatigue impact and severity self-assessment for youth and young adults with cerebral palsy.

Purpose: The Fatigue Impact and Severity Self-Assessment (FISSA) was created to assess the impact, severity, and self-management of fatigue for individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) aged 14-31 years.

Methods: Items were generated from a review of measures and interviews with individuals with CP. Focus groups with health-care professionals were used for item reduction. A mailed survey was conducted (n=163/367) to assess the factor structure, known-groups validity, and test-retest reliability.

Results: The final measure contained 31 items in two factors and discriminated between individuals expected to have different levels of fatigue. Individuals with more functional abilities reported less fatigue (p < 0.002) and those with higher pain reported higher fatigue (p < 0.001). The FISSA was shown to have adequate test-retest reliability, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)(3,1)=0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.53-0.87).

Conclusions: The FISSA valid and reliable for individuals with CP. It allows for identification of the activities that may be compromised by fatigue to enhance collaborative goal setting and intervention planning.