Reliability and validity of a questionnaire of child development for national surveys

Abstract

The child development screening in national surveys supports the formulation of public policies that contribute to its diagnosis and early intervention, aimed at promoting comprehensive development and successful school performance until adolescence, however, few countries in Latin America have this information. Objective: To assess the reliability and convergent validity of a cultural adaptation of the Screening Questionnaire of Child Development for Household Surveys (DIEH) and to describe the prevalence of developmental alterations in children aged between 2 months and 5 years in Bucaramanga-Colombia. Subjects and Method: Between July and December 2016, an evaluation of diagnostic tests was carried out in which participated 224 children aged between two months and five years and their parents or caregivers from Bucaramanga, Colombia. The Abbreviated Developmental Scale was applied by trained physiotherapists and the DIEH was answered by the parents or caregivers. The reliability of the DIEH was established using the Cronbach’s alpha, the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and the Bland and Altman limits of agreement, and the convergent validity was established through the Spearman Correlation Coefficient. Results: Based on the DIEH, the prevalence of lags and delays was 38.8% and 11.2% respectively; internal consistency ranged from 0.23 to 0.76; reproducibility showed an ICC between 0.60 and 0.92; and the convergent validity was almost perfect (ρ: 0.96). Conclusion: The cultural adaptation of the DIEH showed acceptable psychometric properties, which could be complemented with additional studies to recommend its use in national surveys in Latin America.