Reliability of the Neonatal Neurobehavioral Examination--Chinese version

Early Hum Dev. 1996 Jul 19;45(3):191-202. doi: 10.1016/0378-3782(96)01727-6.

Abstract

A Chinese version of the Neonatal Neurobehavioral Examination (NNE-C) was applied to 15 high-risk infants and five normal term infants for investigation of reliability. The infants were assessed by three physical therapists to examine inter-rater reliability and reassessed by one of the therapists within 2 days to examine test-retest reproducibility. The internal consistency of the NNE-C scale was high, with an alpha coefficient of 0.84. The inter-rater reliability was high for item scores (kappa coefficients > 0.75 for 81% of the items) and for section and total scores (all intraclass correlation coefficients > 0.80). The test-retest reproducibility was moderate for item scores (kappa coefficients > 0.40 for 85% of the items) and was high for section and total scores (all intraclass correlation coefficients > 0.80). We conclude that the NNE-C scale is clinically feasible and reliable for the evaluation of neurobehavioral functions of high-risk and normal term infants in Chinese-speaking societies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Behavior
  • Female
  • Gestational Age
  • Humans
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Neonatal Screening / methods*
  • Neurologic Examination / methods*
  • Neurologic Examination / statistics & numerical data
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Reflex
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Risk Factors
  • Taiwan