Early identification of children with communication disabilities--evaluation of a screening programme in a Swedish county.
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%.
Magnusson
M
M
Department of Paediatrics, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Rasmussen
F
F
Sundelin
C
C
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