TY - JOUR
T1 - Can items used in 4-year-old well-child visits predict children's health and school outcomes?
AU - Smithers, Lisa
AU - Chittleborough, Catherine
AU - Stocks, Nigel
AU - Sawyer, Michael
AU - Lynch, John
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - To examine whether items comprising a preschool well-child check for use by family doctors in Australia with 4-5-year old children predicts health and academic outcomes at 6-7 years. The well-child check includes mandatory (anthropometry, eye/vision, ear/hearing, dental, toileting, allergy problems) and non-mandatory (processed food consumption, low physical activity, motor, behaviour/mood problems) items. The predictive validity of mandatory and non-mandatory items measured at 4-5 years was examined using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Outcomes at 6-7 years included overweight/obesity, asthma, health care/medication needs, general health, mental health problems, quality of life, teacher-reported mathematics and literacy ability (n = 2,280-2,787). Weight or height >90th centile at 4-5 years predicted overweight/obesity at 6-7 years with 60 % sensitivity, 79 % specificity and 40 % positive predictive value (PPV). Mood/behaviour problems at 4-5 predicted mental health problems at 6-7 years with 86 % sensitivity, 40 % specificity and 8 % PPV. Non-mandatory items improved the discrimination between children with and without mental health problems at 6-7 years (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.75 compared with 0.69 for mandatory items only), but was weak for most outcomes. Items used in a well-child health check were moderate predictors of overweight/obesity and mental health problems at 6-7 years, but poor predictors of other health and academic outcomes.
AB - To examine whether items comprising a preschool well-child check for use by family doctors in Australia with 4-5-year old children predicts health and academic outcomes at 6-7 years. The well-child check includes mandatory (anthropometry, eye/vision, ear/hearing, dental, toileting, allergy problems) and non-mandatory (processed food consumption, low physical activity, motor, behaviour/mood problems) items. The predictive validity of mandatory and non-mandatory items measured at 4-5 years was examined using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Outcomes at 6-7 years included overweight/obesity, asthma, health care/medication needs, general health, mental health problems, quality of life, teacher-reported mathematics and literacy ability (n = 2,280-2,787). Weight or height >90th centile at 4-5 years predicted overweight/obesity at 6-7 years with 60 % sensitivity, 79 % specificity and 40 % positive predictive value (PPV). Mood/behaviour problems at 4-5 predicted mental health problems at 6-7 years with 86 % sensitivity, 40 % specificity and 8 % PPV. Non-mandatory items improved the discrimination between children with and without mental health problems at 6-7 years (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.75 compared with 0.69 for mandatory items only), but was weak for most outcomes. Items used in a well-child health check were moderate predictors of overweight/obesity and mental health problems at 6-7 years, but poor predictors of other health and academic outcomes.
KW - Child health
KW - Mental health problems
KW - Obesity
KW - Predictive validity
KW - Screening
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84905439052&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10995-013-1369-8
DO - 10.1007/s10995-013-1369-8
M3 - Article
SN - 1092-7875
VL - 18
SP - 1345
EP - 1353
JO - Maternal and Child Health Journal
JF - Maternal and Child Health Journal
IS - 6
ER -