Child developmental assessment at two-years of age: data from the Pacific Islands Families Study.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the developmental profile of Pacific children living in New Zealand at two years of age in personal/social, language, cognitive, fine motor, and gross motor domains, and to examine how sociodemographic, maternal, and cultural factors influence children's development.


METHODS
A cohort of Pacific infants born during 2000 in Auckland, New Zealand, was followed up at two-years postpartum. Maternal interviews were administered and the developmental status of the child was measured using the Australian Developmental Screening Test.


RESULTS
Maternal child development reports are presented for 1,018 two-year-old children. The majority of children were identified as having no developmental delay. The prevalence of no delay in any of these five domains was 64.8%. For those children (35%) who were identified with possible overall delay the significant risk factors were child ethnicity, low birth weight, being breastfed for less than six weeks, and single parenthood.


CONCLUSIONS
The powerful associations of these factors and developmental outcome suggest that interventions need to have the flexibility to address such issues within individual Pacific families and communities.
AUT University, School of Public Health and Psychosocial Studies, Auckland, New Zealand. janis.paterson@aut.ac.nz
Janis
J
Paterson
Leon
L
Iusitini
Wanzhen
W
Gao
D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000069:Acculturation; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002657:Child Development; D015331:Cohort Studies; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008403:Mass Screening; D009035:Mothers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D016487:Parenting / Q000208:ethnology; D015995:Prevalence; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D000095188:Pacific Island People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data