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Psychomotor development index in children younger than 6 years from Argentine provinces

Horacio Lejarraga1, Diana M Kelmansky2, Alicia Masautis3

  • 1Universidad de Buenos Aires. cursotesis07@gmail.com.

Archivos Argentinos De Pediatria
|March 21, 2018
PubMed

Insights

A new psychomotor development index (PDI) was created for Argentine provinces. This tool, reflecting child development milestones, correlates strongly with infant mortality, offering a valuable public health indicator.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Psychomotor development is crucial for child well-being.
  • Assessing developmental progress across regions is essential for targeted health interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To establish a Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) for each Argentine province.
  • To provide a novel health indicator for national statistics.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from 13,323 children under 6 from the 2004 National Survey on Nutrition and Health (ENNyS).
  • Calculated PDI based on the attainment of 10 developmental milestones using logistic regression.
  • Defined PDI as 100*(1+b), where 'b' reflects the deviation from national median age for milestone attainment.

Main Results:

  • Provincial PDI scores varied from 72.1 to 106.4.
  • A significant negative correlation (r=-0.85) was observed between PDI and infant mortality rates.
  • Most provinces exhibited delays in milestone attainment, indicated by negative PDI values.

Conclusions:

  • The PDI serves as a positive health indicator for Argentina.
  • It is a low-cost, easily collectible, and reliable tool for national health statistics.
  • The PDI's correlation with infant mortality highlights shared socio-biological determinants.
Abstract

Keywords:
Developmental tempoEnvironmentPsychomotor development

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