Abstract
AimSub-Saharan Africa bears a disproportionate amount of global diseases related to neurodevelopmental delays in infancy, including malnutrition, malaria and HIV. Evaluating interventions to prevent such delays requires developmental assessment tools appropriate for Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to develop and evaluate such a tool.
MethodsThe Developmental Milestones Checklist (DMC) was developed in Kenya to provide motor, language and personal-social scores for children aged from 3 to 24months. We developed an extended version (DMC-II) in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and then evaluated the reliability and sensitivity of the scores to age and nutritional and environmental measures.
ResultsThe internal, interinterviewer and test-retest reliability of the DMC-II scores were >0.7. In 214 children aged 11.6-25.4months, each score correlated with age (rs>0.7). In 1123 children aged 16.8-19.9months, the scores were sensitive to stunting, wasting and underweight (effect sizes 0.31-0.87 SD). The scores also showed expected correlations with measures of play materials in the home and activities with caregivers (rs=0.13-0.41).
ConclusionThe DMC-II is easily used by trained fieldworkers with no previous experience in developmental assessment. It is a practical, reliable and sensitive tool for evaluating motor, language and personal-social development in different contexts in Sub-Saharan Africa.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 447-454 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Acta Paediatrica |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Kathryn Dewey, iLiNS Project Director, supervised the postdoctoral work of Elizabeth Prado, including this study. The iLiNS-Zinc study was designed and executed by the iLiNS-Zinc team, led by Kenneth Brown, Steve Vosti, Sonja Hess, and Jean-Bosco Ouedraogo. Rosemonde Guissou contributed to the coordination of the iLiNS-ZINC project. Vincent Gnimassou, Deborah Siry, Mariatre Rayaisse and Elise Kere conducted the pilot test and collected the DMC-II and anthropometric data. Bernadin Sanou, Aminata Lega, Brigitte Ye and Aicha Diallo conducted the family care indicators interview. Janet Peerson performed the randomisation for sample selection. Penny Holding was involved in the development of the original DMC and advised on the development of the DMC-II. This publication is based on research funded by a grant to the University of California, Davis, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Keywords
- Child Development
- Developmental assessment
- Infant Development
- Neurodevelopment
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- MENTAL-DEVELOPMENT
- CHILD-DEVELOPMENT
- YOUNG-CHILDREN
- FAMILY CARE
- KILIFI
- INFANTS
- KENYA
- PSYCHOMOTOR
- INDICATORS
- OUTCOMES
