PURPOSE: Since National Health Screening Program for Infants and Children in Korea started from November, 2007, the need to design a new tool that can timely identify infants and chlildren with possible delayed development has been emphasized. The developmental screening devices currently used in Korea are mostly adapted from foreign tests and could be considered inappropriate for children growing in a different cultural background. Therefore, we assessed the appropriateness of Korean-Ages and Stages Questionnaires (K-ASQ) items in Korean infants and children, as a preliminary study to develop a new developmental screening test tool. METHODS: Data on K-ASQ tests that were performed in multicenters as a National Health Screening Program in Korea were analyzed to measure (1) the item difficulty and norm relevance (2) the goodness of fit for factor structure (3) the sensitivity of item for developmental evaluation. A total of 1,696 subjects, 877 boys (51.7%) and 819 girls (48.3%) were studied and with about 50 boys and 50 girls for each age of months, the sample was relatively evenly distributed. RESULTS: Analysis of K-ASQ data showed that (1) The subjects scored higher when compared to the K-ASQ's original criteria. (2) The suitability of confirmative factor structure was insufficient, especially problem solving [x2=41.063, P<0.01, CFI (Comparative Fit Index)=0.929, TLI (Turker-Lewis index)=0.834, RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error Approximation)=0.152] and personal-social domains (x2=55.208, P<0.01, CFI=0.817, TLI=0.573, RMSEA=0.182). (3) Some questions did not show significant difference in the sensitivity of item for developmental evaluation among monthly age groups. CONCLUSION: According to the analysis of previous K-ASQ data, the appropriateness of the questionnaires is good in general, but some questions of problem-solving and personal social domains are not appropriate. We suggested the development of a new developmental screening test tool, which is suitable for Korean infants and children.
Child* ; Female ; Humans ; Infant* ; Korea ; Mass Screening* ; Problem Solving ; Surveys and Questionnaires*