Parent-Completed Developmental Screening in Premature Children: A Valid Tool for Follow-Up Programs ASQ and Neurodevelopmental Outcome
2011

Parent-Completed Developmental Screening in Premature Children

Sample size: 703 publication Evidence: high

Author Information

Author(s): Cyril Flamant, Bernard Branger, The Tich Sylvie Nguyen, Elise de La Rochebrochard, Christophe Savagner, Isabelle Berlie, Jean-Christophe Rozé

Primary Institution: Department of Neonatal Medicine, University Hospital, Nantes, France

Hypothesis

Can the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) effectively screen for psychomotor development in ex-premature infants at 2 years of age?

Conclusion

The ASQ is a simple and reliable tool for predicting normal neurologic outcomes in ex-premature infants at 2 years of age.

Supporting Evidence

  • 630 infants (89.6%) had an optimal neuromotor examination at 2 years.
  • ASQ scores produced an area under the receiver operator curve value of 0.85.
  • An ASQ cut-off score of ≤220 had optimal discriminatory power for identifying a DQ score ≤85.

Takeaway

This study shows that parents can use a simple questionnaire to help check if their premature babies are developing normally by age 2.

Methodology

The study evaluated 703 ex-premature infants at 2 years using the ASQ, clinical examinations, and the Brunet-Lezine test.

Potential Biases

No evidence that the accuracy of ASQ reports was influenced by socio-economic level or maternal education.

Limitations

The psychometric properties of the ASQ French version have not been studied in a control population.

Participant Demographics

Infants were very preterm (<35 weeks gestational age), with detailed socio-economic data available for 419 infants.

Statistical Information

Confidence Interval

95% CI: 0.82–0.87

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1371/journal.pone.0020004

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