M.J. Ferrari1, R. Canal-Bedía, PhD2, P. García-Primo1, L. Boada1, A. Martinez2, E. García-Andrés1, M. Posada1, C. Martín-Arribas1, Rubén Palomo3, L. Herraez2, A. Muñoz3, and L. Velayos3. (1) Rare Diseases Research Institute, Carlos III Health Institute, Sinesio Delgado nº6, Madrid, 28029, Spain, (2) SALAMANCA UNIVERSITY, Paseo de Canalejas, 169, Salamanca, 37003, Spain, (3) Equipo IRIDIA, C/ Juan de Urbieta 42, local 4, Madrid, Spain
Background: Although retrospective reports suggest that most parents identify ASD symptoms before 18 months of age and that a diagnosis of autism can be reliably made between 2 and 3 years of age, ASD diagnoses are often delayed until mid-childhood. The M-CHAT (Robins et. Al, 2001), a 23-item parent-report checklist has been designed as a screening tool to detect high risk ASD children but there is not enough information about the feasibility and validity of this tool in a population-based study, Objectives: To analyze the validity of the Spanish version of the MCHAT for early detection of ASD in a Spanish population. Methods: The MCHAT was translated into Spanish and a cross-cultural adaptation was performed (MCHAT/ES). A population-based ASD screening programme using MCHAT/ES version was established in three Spanish regions. Parents of 18 months and/or 24 months aged children were asked to fill in this questionnaire at the outpatient health services (compulsory vaccination programme and well-child check-up programme respectively) (SP). For validation purposes, children referred (CR) for early intervention services with either ASD diagnosis or non-ASD developmental disorder were included to enrich the sample. The original MCHAT criteria and a refining procedure for the phone call were adopted after agreement with the MCHAT authors, Results: A total of 5,188 children were included. 29 ASD children, (10 from SP and the other 9 from CR), 71 non ASD developmental disorders (28 from SP and 43 from CR). Both sensitivity and specificity showed high values only if both questionnaire and a systematic phone call were used. Conclusions: The MCHAT/ES shows promise as a screening tool for developmental disorders in an unselected population. However, the cut-off point when only the questionnaire is used should be raised This work is an important contribution to ongoing research into identification of ASD at a young age.
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