Comparison of the performance of two tests for the assessment of child neurodevelopment in a children's hospital in the City of Buenos Aires

Introduction. An early detection of developmental disorders allows to implement actions to improve their course and prognosis. In Argentina, the administration of the National Screening Test (Prueba Nacional de Pesquisa, PRUNAPE) requires a certified professional. The Child Development Observation Instrument (Instrumento de Observación del Desarrollo Infantil, IODI) is a systematized developmental surveillance tool that does not require specialization for its administration. The use of the IODI as a neurodevelopmental assessment tool would be useful because of its easy applicability. Objective. To assess the performance of the IODI as a surveillance test for developmental disorders using the PRUNAPE as a gold standard. Population and methods. Analytical, prospective study with a diagnostic test. Patients aged 1 month to 4 years, whose parents gave consent to participate, were included randomly. The IODI performance was assessed using the PRUNAPE as the gold standard. Sensitivity (S), specificity (Sp), positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV), and positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR and NLR) were estimated. Results. Ninety-one patients were assessed; 24 failed the PRUNAPE, of these, 21 also failed the IODI (S: 87.5%, Sp: 79.1%, PPV: 60.1%, NPV: 94.6%). PLR: 4.2, NLR: 0.2. Conclusion. The IODI showed an acceptable performance as a developmental disorders surveillance test compared to the PRUNAPE.