ESSENCE-Q: Slavic language versions for developmental screening in young children

• Purpose: The Early Symptomatic Syndromes Eliciting Neurodevelopmental Clinical Examinations- Questionnaire (ESSENCE-Q) was developed as a brief screener to identify children with developmental concerns who might have neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). This study aimed to translate the ESSENCE -Q into south Slavic languages, namely, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, and Slovenian, and to evaluate its psychometric properties for screening purposes in clinical settings. Patients and methods: In the study, the ESSENCE-Q was completed for 251 "typically developing" children and 200 children with 1 or more diagnosed NDDs, all aged 1-6 years. Internal consistency and construct validity were tested first, followed by generating receiver operating characteristic curves and the area under the curve. Optimal cutoff values were then explored. Results: The Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.91, 0.88, and 0.86 for ESSENCE-Q parent-completed form, and the telephone and direct interview forms administered by trained nurse or specialist, respectively. The 3 versions produced area under the curve values (95% confidence interval): 0.96 (0.93-0.99), 0.91 (0.86-0.95), and 0.91 (0.86.-0.97), respectively. An optimal cutoff for ESSENCE-Q parent-completed form was found to be >= 3 points, while for the telephone and direct interviews, it was >= 5 points. Conclusion: We found adequate measurement properties of the south Slavic languages versions of the ESSENCE-Q as a screener for NDDs in clinical settings. This study provided additional data supporting sound psychometric properties of the ESSENCE-Q.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper -- Neurovetenskaper (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Basic Medicine -- Neurosciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

early screening

questionnaire

autism

intellectual disability

autism spectrum disorder

early intervention

recommendations

countries

delay

tool

Neurosciences & Neurology

Psychiatry

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)