Bangladesh: Evaluation of a Low-Cost Assessment Tool to Screen for Childhood Disabilities
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Project
Evaluation of a low-cost assessment tool to screen for childhood disabilities
Start Date
October 2000
Background
The prevalence of developmental disabilities and their link with specific nutrient deficiencies are hard to monitor because of a lack of data. There is information on disabilities where formal services and schools are not universally available. A ten question screen has proven reliable and valid across cultures for detecting serious cognitive, motor, and seizure disabilities in 2 to 9 year-old children in low resource settings, but has low sensitivity for previously undetected vision and hearing disabilities.
Low-cost assessment tools are needed to increase the sensitivity for hearing and vision disabilities and the positive predictive value for all disabilities
- The high sensitivity for cognitive, motor, and seizure disabilities yields an excess of children who screen positive but do not have a disability (3–15%). This over estimation increases costs and resources.
- Children with hearing and vision disabilities are not being identified because of inadequate tools to measure such disabilities.
Purpose
- Test the ability of community workers in rural setting to screen for vision and hearing impairments among 2 to 9 year-old children in household surveys.
- Evaluate the validity of low-cost assessments of cognitive, motor, vision, and hearing disabilities among 2 to 9 year-olds.
- Determine the costs and feasibility of two-phase strategy for surveillance of childhood disabilities in diverse populations at risk for nutritional deficiencies.
Scope
Regional program Kishoreganj and Dhaka, Bangladesh
Partners
- Columbia University, New York
- Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Dhaka (Shishu) Children's Hospital, Bangladesh
- Dhaka University, Bangladesh
Progress
- Training of community workers
- Pilot study on home-based vision and hearing screening
- N = 1,122 households 1,139 mothers, 1,994 children,
- 285 children clinically evaluated
- Methods developed for low-cost cognitive and behavioral assessments
- Analysis of results from 640 households
- Descriptive household, maternal, child characteristics
Future Plans
- Continuation of screening in Kishoreganj to 4,000 children
- Analysis of nutritional data
- Feasibility study
- Revision of hearing and vision screening protocol
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Page last updated: May 22, 2007
Content Source: Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion