Factors influencing performance of chronically ill children on a developmental screening test☆

The Metro-Manila Developmental Screening Test (MMDST) is a Philippine version of the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) for which norms were developed in 1980 on 6006 Filipino children. The MMDST was administered in homes and out-patient clinics to children with chronic illness such as cardiac, neurologic, metabolic and others (n = 405). A discriminant analysis using 16 variables was carried out to compare the characteristics of chronically ill children with abnormal scores of the MMDST (n = 130) and those with normal scores (n = 183). Eleven variables with significant standardized discriminant function coefficients formed three clusters: a child variable cluster (age, −0.31; sex, 0.23; present weight, 0.25; and “only” child, 0.17); a parent variable cluster (mother's education, 0.43; place of longest residence of father, 0.38 and of mother, −0.28; and father's education, 0.17); and a situational variable cluster (number of children in the family, −0.23; current place of residence, 0.25; and working mother, 0.17). Children who tended to have abnormal MMDST scores were older, female, with low present weights, large families, living in rural areas, with mothers not working outside the home (hence, lower family incomes). Additionally, the mothers and fathers of these children had lower educations and fathers had resided in rural areas for a major portion of their lives.