Validity of the Ten Questions screen for childhood disability: Results from population-based studies in Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Pakistan

Maureen S. Durkin, Leslie L. Davidson, Patricia Desai, Z. Meher Hasan, Naila Khan, Patrick E. Shrout, Marigold J. Thorbur, Wei Wang, Sultana S. Z Aman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

An international study to validate the Ten Questions screen for serious childhood disability was undertaken in communities in Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Pakistan, where community workers screened more than 22,000 children ages 2–9 years. All children who screened positive, as well as random samples of those who screened negative, were referred for clinical evaluations. Applying comparable diagnostic criteria, the sensitivity of the screen for serious cognitive, motor, and seizure disabilities is acceptable (80–100%) in all three populations, whereas the positive predictive values range from 3 to 15%. These results confirm the usefulness of the Ten Questions as a low-cost and rapid screen for these disabilities, although not for vision and hearing disabilities, in populations where few affected children have previously been identified and treated. They also show that the value of the Ten Questions for identifying disability in underserved populations is limited to that of a screen; more thorough evaluations of children screened positive are necessary to distinguish true- from false-positive results and to identify the nature of the disability if present.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)283-289
Number of pages7
JournalEpidemiology
Volume5
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1994

Keywords

  • Child development disorders
  • Cross-cultural comparison
  • Disability
  • Epidemiologic methods
  • Predictive value of tests
  • Questionnaires
  • Reproducibility of results
  • Screening
  • Sensitivity
  • Specificity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology

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