The ability of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) to indicate motor difficulties in infants in primary care

Abstract

Introduction Delayed achievement of motor milestones may be an early indicator of motor difficulties. Parent-reported questionnaires may serve as an efficient, low-cost screening to identify infants in need of further clinical assessment, and thus be a helpful tool in busy health care centers.

Purpose To examine the ability of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, second edition (ASQ-2) to indicate motor difficulties in infants using the Infant Motor Profile (IMP) as the reference standard.

Methods A cross-sectional design was applied to examine the correlation between parent-reported data of the ASQ-2 and data from physiotherapist assessment using IMP. Included were 432 mainly low-risk infants aged 3–12 months from primary care.

Results Overall, ASQ-2 gross and fine motor scores did not correlate well with the IMP total or domain scores. The ASQ-2 gross motor cut point (> 2SD below the mean), showed 34.3% sensitivity and 96.7% specificity using the 15th percentile from IMP performance domain as reference standard. The positive predictive value to indicate motor difficulties was 48%.

Conclusion The motor domains of ASQ-2 have poor ability to identify infants with motor difficulties as indicated by their IMP scores in low-risk infants.