European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Many new born babies experience low blood glucose concentrations, a condition referred to as neonatal hypoglycaemia (NH). Neonatal hypoglycemia is a frequently encountered metabolic derangement confronted in neonates leading to developmental delay in later life. Early identification of delay can help the treating paediatrician to start early stimulation and improve the outcome of these children. Various developmental screening tests are available but these require expertise administration and interpretation.
Aims and objectives: To evaluate a wide spectrum of neonatal hypoglycaemia in developing children. Compare DDST II with TDSC for screening for developmental delay and LEST for screening of language delay in children with neonatal hypoglycemia.
Material and Methods: We conducted a hospital based analytical cross-sectional study at Muzaffarnagar Medical College in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India from Aug 2019 toJuly 2020. We conducted a Descriptive Hospital based cross-sectional study after Institutional ethics committee approval and written informed consent. Children with history of neonatal hypoglycemia were identified and their details were collected in a structured proforma. All these children were assessed for developmental delay by DDST II, TDSC and LEST scale by different individuals.
Results and Observations: Total of 82 children was enrolled in the age group of 6 months to 6 years. On comparing TDSC to DDST II, sensitivity of the TDSC is 93.18% and specificity is 100%. Kappa value is 0.92 (0.70-1.14). While LEST has sensitivity is 88.64% specificity is 97.3% and Kappa value is 0.852 (1.071-0.6367) as compared to the Language domain of DDST II.
Conclusion: TDSC and LEST are simple scales with good sensitivity and specificity. Nurse, receptionist or peripheral health workers can be taught to use these scales with minimum training to augment early identification and early referral of developmental delay.