THU203 Self-puberty Staging In Endocrine Encounters During The COVID Pandemic

Disclosure: C. Ebo: None. J. McCray: None. K. Bowers: None. S.R. Rose: None. N. Yayah Jones: None. Background and Objective: Telemedicine became increasingly necessary during the COVID 19 pandemic. It presents challenges for evaluating pubertal staging, essential for endocrine care. Studies testing validity of pubertal self-staging compared with clinical examination have had conflicting results and have not focused on telemedicine encounters. The aim of this study was to determine validity and reliability of patients’ self-staging pubertal assessments for potential use at home during telemedicine visits. Methods: Study included patients [referred to Cincinnati Children Hospital Medical Center pediatric endocrinology center for specialty care], age 7-22y, who required pubertal staging as part of their comprehensive evaluation. Upon clinic check-in, patients received a packet with description of study procedure and rationale; an option to “opt in” or “opt out” of the study; written sex-specific instructions on how to do self-pubertal staging; and gender-appropriate illustration sheet(s) depicting Tanner (T) stages. Boys’ packets included drawings and descriptions for pubic hair (PH) stages T1-T5; girls’ packets included drawings and descriptions for PH and also for breast development (BR) stages T1-T5. Patients who “opted in” were given 0.60 was considered strong agreement; 0.40-0.60 moderate agreement; 0.20-0.40 fair agreement. Agreement for girls was highest in T1 (BR 0.65, 95%CI 0.44-0.86; PH 0.57, 95%CI 0.35-0.79) and T5 (BR 0.57, 95%CI 0.37-0.77; PH 0.65, 95%CI 0.47-0.83). Agreement for boys PH was highest in T1 (0.73, 95%CI 0.59-0.87) and T2 (0.58, 95%CI 0.59-0.87). A greater level of agreement w