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Elucidating the Level of Developmental Risk in a Busy Pediatric Practice Clinic from a Middle-Income Country.

BACKGROUND
Identifying young children with serious developmental concerns is a common challenge in pediatric settings around the world. Elucidating parental concerns about their children's development is a useful predictor of developmental status. The aim of this study is to elucidate the level of developmental risk in a busy outpatient pediatric clinic using the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) and observe the associated factors in a middle-income country.


METHODS
Parents attending a medical appointment for their children in a pediatric outpatient clinic were asked to complete the PEDS and a questionnaire pertaining to sociodemographic details. A total of 151 parents were eligible to participate in the study. Parents also rated the ease of completion of the test with the response options being 'difficult, a little difficult, easy, very easy'.


RESULTS
In our total sample, 9.3% (n=14) were at high risk, 16.6% (n=25) were at moderate risk and the remainder were at low/no risk. Being at high or moderate risk (25.8%, n=39) was higher in male gender (p= 0.046) and older age children (p=0.004). Hospitalization in a neonatal intensive care unit longer than 3 days, maternal employment status/housewife, long duration of screen viewing were independent risk factors significantly associated with high or moderate risk in multivariable analyses. Among the participants, 98.7% of parents reported that the PEDS was easy or very easy to complete in the clinical setting.


CONCLUSION
In this study, in a cosmopolitan city of a middle-income country, a quarter of children were observed to be at high or moderate risk. The findings highlight the importance of elucidating the prevalence of developmental concerns among the population to enable families to access universal high-quality early childhood services.