Validation of the Egyptian-Arabic version of ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire: a cross-cultural study

Purpose To culturally adapt the ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire into Egyptian Arabic, evaluate its psychometric properties among Egyptian parents of children with cerebral palsy (CP), and examine its cross-cultural validity across three countries.Materials and methods ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire was translated into Egyptian Arabic following established cross-cultural adaptation guidelines and administered to 89 parents of children with CP. Content validity, structural validity using the Rasch model, internal consistency, and construct and discriminative validity were assessed. Cross-cultural validity was examined through Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analyses comparing Egyptian data with samples from Saudi Arabia (n = 95) and the original Belgian cohort (n = 113).Results The Egyptian-Arabic version of ABILHAND-Kids retained 16 items forming a unidimensional measurement of manual ability for children with CP, regardless of age, gender, CP type, topographical classification, and GMFCS level. Internal consistency was high (person separation index: 0.89–0.90). Both discriminative and construct validities were supported. Almost two-thirds of original items displayed major cross-country DIFs, underscoring the relevance for an Egyptian-specific ABILHAND-Kids calibration.Conclusion The strong psychometric properties of the adapted Egyptian ABILHAND-Kids, combined with its clinical relevance and ease of administration, provide new opportunities for assessing manual ability in Egyptian children with CP in clinical and research settings.