Identifying Autism with a Brief and Low-Cost Screening Instrument-OERA: Construct Validity, Invariance Testing, and Agreement Between Judges

J Autism Dev Disord. 2018 May;48(5):1780-1791. doi: 10.1007/s10803-017-3440-6.

Abstract

Simple and low-cost observational-tools to detect symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are still necessary. The OERA is a new assessment tool to screen children eliciting observable behaviors with no substantial knowledge on ASD required. The sample was 99 children aged 3-10: 76 with ASD and 23 without ASD (11/23 had intellectual disability). The 13 remained items exhibited high interrater agreement and high reliability loaded onto a single latent trait. Such model showed excellent fit indices evaluated via confirmatory factor analysis and no item showed differential function in terms of age/sex/IQ. A cutoff of five points or higher resulted in the highest sensitivity (92.75) and specificity (90.91) percentages. OERA is a brief, stable, low-cost standardized observational-screening to identify ASD children.

Keywords: Autism; Construct validity; Public health; Screening; Sensitivity; Specificity.

MeSH terms

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder / diagnosis*
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder / economics*
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder / psychology
  • Behavior Observation Techniques / economics*
  • Behavior Observation Techniques / standards*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis
  • Factor Analysis, Statistical
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intellectual Disability / diagnosis
  • Intellectual Disability / economics
  • Intellectual Disability / psychology
  • Male
  • Mass Screening / economics*
  • Mass Screening / standards*
  • Reproducibility of Results