Dr Pratibha Keshav Agarwal, Senior Consultant, Department of Neonatology, and her KKH team recently won a “Best Free Paper Presentation Award” during the SiPPAC 2014 congress.
Dr Pratibha Keshav Agarwal, Senior Consultant, Department of Neonatology, and her KKH team recently won a “Best Free Paper Presentation Award” during the SiPPAC 2014 congress.
Very low birth weight (VLBW) infants (born less than 1500g) are at high risk for developing cognitive, neuromotor and neurosensory disabilities. VLBW infants require close neurodevelopmental surveillance which can be expensive and resource limited. Early diagnosis and intervention has been shown to improve outcomes.
Hence, the team aimed to find a reliable parent filled screening tool that can be a useful alternative to a psychometric evaluation conducted by medical professionals.
The team successfully validated ASQ-3 (a parental questionnaire) as a useful screening tool to assess VLBW infants’ communication, motor and cognitive development. ASQ-3 had demonstrated high sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive values, compared to the gold standard psychometric scale (BSID-III) that is conducted by healthcare professionals.
The team demonstrated that it was possible to have a parent completed reliable and inexpensive monitoring tool. Furthermore it would enhance parents’ participation in the care of their child and encourage family centred care.
Glossary
Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ), Third Edition (ASQ-3)
Bayley Scale of Infant Development – III (BSID-III)
