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Ages and Stages Questionnaire as a screening tool for developmental delay in Indian children
Monica Juneja1, Mugdha Mohanty, Rahul Jain
1Department of Pediatrics and Neonatology, Maulana Azad Medical College and associated Lok Nayak Hospital, 2, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, India. drmonicajuneja@gmail.com
Insights
The Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) effectively screens for developmental delay in Indian children. It shows high sensitivity, particularly for high-risk infants, making it a valuable tool for early detection.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Developmental Psychology
- Public Health
Background:
- Developmental delay is a significant concern in Indian children.
- Early detection and intervention are crucial for improving outcomes.
- Parent-completed screening tools offer a scalable approach to developmental surveillance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the accuracy of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) in identifying developmental delay among Indian children.
- To evaluate the ASQ's sensitivity and specificity in a diverse pediatric population in India.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 200 Indian children aged 4-24 months.
- Children were categorized into high-risk and low-risk groups.
- The Hindi version of the ASQ was administered to parents, followed by standardized developmental assessment using the Developmental Assessment Scale for Indian Infants (DASII).
Main Results:
- 51% of children failed the ASQ, while 45% failed the DASII.
- The ASQ demonstrated an overall sensitivity of 83.3% and specificity of 75.4%.
- Sensitivity was highest for the 24-month ASQ (94.7%) and specificity for the 4-month ASQ (86.4%). Higher sensitivity was observed in high-risk (92.3%) versus low-risk (60%) groups.
Conclusions:
- The ASQ exhibits strong performance characteristics for detecting developmental delay in Indian children.
- The questionnaire is particularly effective in identifying high-risk children.
- The ASQ's adaptability to other Indian languages suggests its potential for widespread use in developmental screening programs.
Objective:
To evaluate the ability of Ages and Stages Questionnaire, a parent completed developmental screening questionnaire to detect developmental delay in Indian children.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Setting:
Child Development Clinic of a tertiary care center located in Northern India.
Participants And Methods:
200 children, 50 each in the age groups of 4±1, 10±1, 18±1 and 24±1 months were recruited (20 high risks and 30 low risks in each age group). The Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) was translated into Hindi and administered to the parents, followed by standardized development assessment using Developmental Assessment Scale for Indian Infants (DASII).
Results:
102 (51%) children failed on ASQ and 90 (45%) children failed on DASII. The overall sensitivity of ASQ for detecting developmental delay was 83.3% and specificity was 75.4%. The sensitivity was best for the 24-months questionnaire (94.7%) and specificity was best for the 4-month questionnaire (86.4%). The sensitivity of ASQ was much higher in the high risk group (92.3%) as compared to the low risk group (60%).
Conclusion:
ASQ has strong test characteristics for detecting developmental delay in Indian children, especially in high risk cases. It may be easily converted into other Indian languages and used widely for developmental screening.
