Identification of childhood disability in Jamaica: The ten question screen
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Date
Jun. 1992
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Abstract
This study was part of the International Epidemiologic Study on Childhood Disability. The Ten Question Screen (TQ) was used as the main instrument to identify disability in a two-stage population-based survey of 5,478 children aged 2-9 years in Clarendon, Jamaica. In the second stage, TQ positive and 8 percent of the screen negative controls were professionally assessed by a doctor and a psychologist, using standard criteria based on the main classification system of the ICIDH. Sensitivity of the TQ as a whole varied in different strata of the group and amongst different disabilities, from perfect girls under six years, fits and motor disabilities, and for serious disability in all groups except boys over five years with cognitive disability. Specificity was good, but the false positive rate was unacceptably high, at 74 percent. It was concluded that the validation of a simple questionnaire of perceptions of behaviour against objective measurements of impairments was perhaps not fair to the TQ. In spite of this, the TQ would be a very useful instrument in collecting disability data or for identifying people in need of rehabilitation help, if a way of reducing false positives could be found