The effectiveness of brief psychosocial screening in identifying behavioral problems in children
Plubrukarn, R.; Amloy, K.; Kanjanapatanakul, W.
Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand 94(Suppl 3): S145-S151
2011
ISSN/ISBN: 0125-2208 PMID: 22043768 Document Number: 15346
Using screening tools to enhance early detection of psychosocial problems can lead to timely intervention and appropriate referral to general practices. To assess whether the Thai version of Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is suitable for screening of psychosocial dysfunction. A cross sectional study was conducted among 160 children aged 6-11 years seeking care at Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health from November 2006 to December 2007. Parents were asked to complete the Thai version of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) questionnaire and the Thai Youth Behavior Checklist (TYC). Sensitivity specificity, positive and negative predictive value were analyzed and reported. The area under the receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve, using the TYC as a gold standard, was 0.895. The cut-off score of 16 was appropriate for early detection of the psychosocial dysfunction. At this cut-off score, the sensitivity was 83.51%, the specificity was 79.37%, the positive predictive value was 86.17% and the negative predictive value for detecting psychosocial dysfunction among children was 75.76%. The authors' findings suggested that the Thai version, parent completed, PSC may be a useful psychosocial screening tool for the children aged 6-11 years with the recommended cut-off score of 16.