title: Early identification of children with communication disabilities--evaluation of a screening programme in a Swedish county.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of an early screening programme for communicative disturbances in relation to the health status of the child at the age of 4 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control study including 705 cases and 2451 controls was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cases with communication disorders as well as other types of disabilities at 4 years of age showed a higher frequency of deviant screening results on each screening occasion. The sensitivity for the screening programme amounted to 24.8%, the specificity was 95.5% and the positive predictive value was 61.2%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Uppsala University, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Magnusson
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sundelin
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013548:Sweden