Performance of the German version of the PARCA-R questionnaire as a developmental screening tool in two-year-old very preterm infants

Eleonora Picotti; Nina Bechtel; Beatrice Latal; Cristina Borradori-Tolsa; Myriam Bickle-Graz; Sebastian Grunt; Samantha Johnson; Dieter Wolke; Giancarlo Natalucci; Swiss Neonatal Network & Follow-Up Group

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236289

Performance of the German version of the PARCA-R questionnaire as a developmental screening tool in two-year-old very preterm infants

PLoS One. 2020 Sep 3;15(9):e0236289. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236289. eCollection 2020.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Division of Neuropaediatrics and Developmental Medicine, University Children's Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
³ Child Development Centre, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Woman, Child and Adolescent, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁵ Department Woman-Mother-Child, University Hospital Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁶ Division of Neuropaediatrics, Development and Rehabilitation, University Children's Hospital, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁷ Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom.
⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
⁹ Larson-Rosenquist Family Foundation Centre for Neurodevelopment, Growth and Nutrition of the Newborn, University of Zurich, Zurich Switzerland.

Abstract

Objective: To validate and test a German version of the revised Parent Report of Children's Abilities questionnaire (PARCA-R).

Methods: Multicentre cross-sectional study. Parents of infants born <32 gestational weeks, completed the PARCA-R within three weeks before the follow-up assessment of their child at age two years. Infants were assessed using the Mental Development Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development 2nd edition (BSID-II). Pearson correlation between the Parent Report Composite (PRC) of the PARCA-R and MDI was tested. The optimal PRC cut-off for predicting moderate-to-severe mental delay, defined as MDI<70, was identified through the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

Results: PARCA-R and BSID-II data were collected from 154 consecutive infants [51% girls, mean (SD) gestational age 29.0 (2.0) weeks, birth weight 1174 (345) grams] at 23.2 (1.6) months of corrected age. The PRC score [70.5 (31.1)] correlated with the MDI [92.2 (17.3); R = 0.54; p < 0.0001]. The optimal PRC cut-off for identifying mental delay was 44 with 0.81 (0.54-0.96) sensitivity (95%-CI), 0.81 (0.74-0.87) specificity, area under the ROC curve of 0.840 (0.729-0.952).

Conclusion: The German version of the PARCA-R had good validity with the BSID-II and PCR scores < 44 proved optimal discriminatory power for the identification of mental delay at two years of corrected age.

Publication types

Multicenter Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Child Development*
Child, Preschool
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature* / physiology
Male
Neurodevelopmental Disorders / diagnosis*
Neurodevelopmental Disorders / epidemiology
Surveys and Questionnaires
Switzerland / epidemiology

Grants and funding

EP was was supported by the Anna Müller Grocholski Foundation (https://neu2017.amg-stiftung.ch). GN was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant: PZOOP3_161146; http://www.snf.ch). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.