title: Validation of the key informant method to identify children with disabilities: methods and results from a pilot study in Bangladesh.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether the key informant method (KIM) is an effective method to identify children with disabling sensory or physical impairments, or epilepsy (tonic-clonic seizures), in a low-income setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  In one subdistrict each, the Key Informants (KIs) were trained to recognize children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical impairment and epilepsy, respectively. In the fifth subdistrict, the KIs were trained to recognize all four conditions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 2260 children identified by KIs, 1227 attended for examination (54%), of which 911 were diagnosed to have a disabling impairment (74%). KIM had a high sensitivity (average 98%) for case detection in all groups but specificity was lower (average 44%), particularly for hearing impairment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  KIs were able to identify children with epilepsy, sensory and physical impairments. KIM is an effective and low-cost method to identify children with disability in a low-income setting.
authors.affiliation: International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, London WC1E 7HT, UK. suemack202@yahoo.co.uk
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mackey
authors.forename: Gudlavalleti V S
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Murthy
authors.forename: Mohammad A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Muhit
authors.forename: Johurul J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Foster
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001459:Bangladesh; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011203:Poverty; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires