Parental and professional agreement in developmental assessment of very-low-birthweight and term infants.
The aim of this prospective follow-up study was to evaluate the accuracy of a parent-completed questionnaire compared with professionally detected developmental delay. Parents of 108 very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants and parents of 279 term control infants completed the German version of the Revised Prescreening Developmental Questionnaire (R-PDQ) at the corrected age of 12 months. Simultaneously, infants underwent developmental examination using the Griffiths Developmental Scale. Sixty-nine VLBW infants were classified as not delayed, 16 as delayed by both methods (conegativity 76% and copositivity 94%), as compared to 240 and six term control infants (conegativity 88%, copositivity 94%). The questionnaire suggested delay in 22 VLBW infants and 32 control infants, which was not substantiated by professional examination (P=0.006). In contrast, examination-diagnosed delay was missed by the questionnaire in one infant in each group. The R-PDQ is a reliable monitoring instrument for both VLBW and term infants at the age of 12 months. Parents of VLBW infants tend to underestimate their infants' development.
Heiser
A
A
Department of Neonatology, Charité Virchow Hospital, Berlin, Germany.
Curcin
O
O
Luhr
C
C
Grimmer
I
I
Metze
B
B
Obladen
M
M
D002657:Child Development / Q000145:classification*; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D010290:Parents; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards