COMPARING 2 METHODS OF FOLLOW-UP IN A MULTICENTER RANDOMIZED TRIAL

Aims-To evaluate a parental questionnaire as a means of providing outc ome measures for a multicentre randomised controlled trial of treatmen t for posthaemorrhagic ventricular dilatation. Methods-The parents of 88 survivors were sent a questionnaire before a paediatric assessment at the age of 30 months. The parents' responses to individual question s taken mainly from the Griffiths' mental development scales and their perception of the child's ability to see and hear were compared with the paediatric findings. A model, based on the parents' responses to p articular questions, allowed the categorisation of the children as nor mal, impaired, moderately or severely disabled; this was compared with similar categorisation based on the full paediatric assessment. Resul ts-Agreement on items concerning gross motor function ranged between 8 1 and 99%, concerning dressing between 77 and 80%, concerning feeding between 91 and 99%, and concerning language between 85 and 93%. Simila r proportions of children were identified as disabled by the parents ( 60%) and by the paediatrician (66%). Of 29 children who had developmen tal quotients less than 70, parents identified 28 as disabled, 18 of t hem as severely disabled. They were not so good at identifying childre n with impairments without functional loss. Conclusions-Further work i s required but there is sufficient encouragement from the results to p ursue this methodology further for use in comparing groups in randomis ed trials.