Childhood Autism: the internal consistency Childhood Autism Rating Scale for use in Indonesia and descriptive study of autism clinical variance

Abstract

Background: DSM IV is the gold standard to diagnose autism. However, the DSM IV also needs other instrument to measure the severity of autism such as the CARS. The CARS as autism screening diagnostic instrument is used worldwide and has been translated into many languages. The CARS translation into Indonesian could be more useful and adaptable to diagnostic autism in Semarang. Objectives: To find out the internal consistency reliability of CARS Indonesian version and the clinical variance of children with autism who assessed by CARS Indonesian Version. Material and Methods: The translation of DSM IV and CARS were administered by two bilingual medical doctors and discussed in team to reach the term language agreement. We administered 27 children, age between 2 until 18 years old. The research was done in interval January until August 2009. Results: The internal consistency (Cronbach’s coefficient alpha) of CARS which translated into Indonesian was 0.819 (95% CI 0.701 – 0.905). The highest frequency of normal behavior was adaptation to change (n = 7, 25.9%). The highest frequency of mild behavior abnormality was non verbal communication (n = 17, 63.0%). The highest frequency of moderate form was general impressions (n = 16, 59.3%). The highest frequency of severe form was relating to people (n = 6, 22.2%) and verbal communication (n = 6, 22.2%). Conclusion: The CARS Indonesian version has good internal consistency