ESSENCE-Q - used as a screening tool for neurodevelopmental problems in public health checkups for young children in south Japan
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Published on: August 25, 2014
Yuhei Hatakenaka1,2, Hitoshi Ninomiya3, Eva Billstedt2
1Kochi Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Kochi Prefectural Medical and Welfare Center, Kochi, Japan.
Insights
The ESSENCE-Questionnaire (ESSENCE-Q) shows good diagnostic validity for screening developmental disorders in Japanese child health care, especially when completed by public health nurses and psychologists.
Area of Science:
- Child Health Care
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Early detection of developmental disorders is crucial in child health care.
- The ESSENCE-Questionnaire (ESSENCE-Q) was developed for early identification of neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Validation in a Japanese public health setting was needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate the ESSENCE-Q in Japan.
- To assess the psychometric properties of the ESSENCE-Q.
- To determine optimal cutoff scores for early detection.
Main Methods:
- The ESSENCE-Q was administered to mothers, public health nurses (PHNs), and psychologists.
- Data collected at 18-month and 36-month child checkups.
- Psychometric properties evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the curve (AUC) against clinical diagnoses.
Main Results:
- At 18 months, AUCs ranged from 0.72 (mothers) to 0.86 (PHNs).
- At 36 months, AUCs ranged from 0.57 (mothers) to 0.87 (psychologists).
- Optimal cutoffs identified with high negative predictive values (NPV).
Conclusions:
- The ESSENCE-Q demonstrates good diagnostic validity when completed by PHNs and psychologists.
- Low scores on the ESSENCE-Q suggest a low likelihood of ESSENCE-related problems.
- The tool is effective for early screening of developmental disorders in Japan.
Background:
Screening for developmental disorders is an important task for Child Health Care. The concept of ESSENCE (early symptomatic syndromes eliciting neurodevelopmental clinical examinations) was created to cover all types of early developmental disorders and the ESSENCE-Questionnaire (ESSENCE-Q containing 12 questions with possible total scores ranging from 0 to 22) was developed as a tool for early detection of these disorders. The aim of this study was to perform a validation study in a public health situation in Japan.
Methods:
The psychometric properties of the ESSENCE-Q, completed by mothers, public health nurses (PHNs), and psychologists at 18-month (n=143 children) and 36-month (n=149 children) checkups were evaluated in a small city of Japan. Results were validated against clinical ESSENCE diagnoses. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated and compared by using the area under the curve (AUC). Optimal cutoff values were explored.
Results:
At the 18-month checkup, AUC by mothers was 0.72, by PHNs 0.86, and by psychologists 0.82. An optimal cutoff was 3 with a high negative predictive value (NPV). At the 36-month checkup, AUC by mothers was 0.57, by PHNs 0.82, and by psychologists 0.87. Optimal cutoff was 2 with high NPV.
Conclusion:
The ESSENCE-Q completed by PHNs and psychologists had good diagnostic validity. The results suggested that almost all children scoring under cutoff would not have any ESSENCE problems/diagnoses.
