Development and validation of the MAnchester Needs Tool for Injured Children (MANTIC).
Samantha Jones, Sarah Tyson, Janelle Yorke
PMID 36872874WHAT IT FOUND
The MANTIC questionnaire helps injured children and their families identify specific rehabilitation needs like pain, education and equipment.
It correlates with quality of life and is free to use, though it flags needs without saying if they are met.
Key findings
01The MANTIC is a self-report questionnaire for injured children (2-16 years) and families to identify frequency and type of needs across physical, educational, and psychosocial domains.
02Higher MANTIC scores (indicating greater need) correlated moderately with poorer health-related quality of life as measured by the EQ-5D-Y.
03The tool demonstrates excellent internal consistency overall but does not assess whether identified needs are actually met by services.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study did not test whether the MANTIC improves clinical outcomes or service efficiency; it only validated the tool's psychometric properties. Recruitment was skewed towards children in the early stages of recovery (less than 6 months post-injury), so the tool's performance in long-term follow-up is less certain. The sample was limited to the UK, and needs may differ in other cultures or healthcare systems. Test-retest reliability was based on a small number of participants (n=17) and may have been influenced by natural recovery within the two-week period. The tool identifies the presence of a need but not whether that need has been met by services.
Declared interests
The lead author was funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship. The authors declared no other potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not sum the MANTIC scores to measure the severity of a child's condition. The authors explicitly state the total score is not intended to indicate overall severity; the tool is designed to identify the specific types and frequency of needs present, not to rank patients by how 'badly off' they are.