Health status of preterm low-birth-weight infants. Comparison of maternal reports.
BACKGROUND
Developers of measures of child health status have documented acceptable reliability and some validity, but less attention has been paid to the concurrent and predictive validity of these measures.


METHODS
We examined the concurrent and predictive validity of the RAND General Health Rating Index, the Stein-Jessop Functional Status II-R, and the mother's global assessment of her child's health on a 5-point scale, in a sample of preterm low-birth-weight children (n = 608) who were followed up as controls in the Infant Health and Development Program. We compared maternal-reported measures assessed at 24 months with other measures of growth, morbidity, functioning, and health care utilization assessed concurrently and at 36 months in bivariate and multivariate analyses.


RESULTS
After controlling for other factors, the RAND General Health Rating Index and the Stein-Jessop Functional Status II-R were unrelated to the growth, utilization, or functioning measures. The RAND General Health Rating Index was significantly, but weakly, related to future morbidity. The mother's global perception of health was significantly related to outpatient utilization and behavior problems.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians may find that maternal assessment of overall child health is a sensitive but nonspecific indicator of the mother's concern. For researchers, none of these measures seems likely to serve as a proxy for health care utilization or morbidity in studies of other phenomena, or as an indicator of detailed health outcomes.
D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006128:Growth; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity