Background: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a rare congenital malformation affecting 1/3000 live births. Neurodevelopmental delay in survivors ranges from 16% to 70%.
Objective: To examine the correlation between Ages and Stages Questionnaires Social Emotional - 2 (ASQ:SE-2) and Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development III Social-Emotional and Adaptive Behaviour Questionnaire (BSID III SE/ABQ) results in a cohort of children with CDH.
Methods: This was a singe centre prospective cohort study of neurodevelopmental outcomes of patients with CDH at 24-36 months corrected age. The primary outcome was correlation of social emotional and adaptive behavioural outcomes using two standardised assessments. Data was analysed using Microsoft Excel.
Standard scores greater than 2 standard deviations (SD) below mean on BSID III SE/ABQ were considered a “fail” and scores between 1 and 2 SD of the mean were considered “borderline”.
A score indicating “refer” in the ASQ:SE-2 was considered a “fail” and a score indicating “monitor” was considered “borderline”.
Results: 31 patients were identified as eligible for study inclusion. Of these, 8 had died at the time of the study, 23 were approached and 20 consented.
Sensitivity of ASQ:SE-2 for predicting results of BSID III SE/ABQ was 50% (PPV = 67%); with specificity 94% (NPV = 88%) using referral cut-offs.
When 65th percentile (monitoring zone) was used as cut off, sensitivity of ASQ:SE-2 for predicting results of BSID III SE/ABQ was 33.3% (PPV = 75%); with specificity 91% (NPV = 62.5%)
Conclusions: In this cohort, sensitivity and specificity of ASQ:SE-2 did not meet quoted levels of 78-88%. Sensitivity was less when cut off scores of 1 SD was used.
This indicates that ASQ:SE-2 does not have appropriate correlation with BSID III SE/ABQ to be used to predict outcomes in this cohort.