Screening for mental health problems in urban preschool children – a pilot study | Zendy

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Screening for mental health problems in urban preschool children – a pilot study

Author(s) -

Harsha Perera

Publication year - 2009

Publication title -

sri lanka journal of child health

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153

H-Index - 6

eISSN - 2386-110X

pISSN - 1391-5452

DOI - 10.4038/sljch.v33i2.650

Subject(s) - medical journal , sri lanka , scopus , publishing , medicine , transparency (behavior) , family medicine , library science , child health , medical education , medline , political science , south asia , law , ethnology , computer science , history

Objectives To assess prevalence and nature of mental health problems in preschool children and the feasibility and effectiveness of a screening tool for regular use by primary healthcare doctors in identifying these problems. Setting Colombo Municipal Council Child Welfare Centre - preschool clinics. Method Assessment tool was a semi-structured interview, which included a checklist of common symptoms of developmental, emotional and behaviour problems. Responses of the adult caregiver were recorded. Results Data of 120 children, 36-68 months of age, were available for analysis. Mild symptoms were present in 45.5% and definite or severe symptoms in 9.9%. A reliable positive correlation was found only between aggressive behaviour, disobedience and destructive behaviour (r= +0.66). There was low correlation between behaviour problems and eating problems and emotional symptoms (r= +0.11). Conclusion Rapid and effective screening was possible using the assessment tool, which can be used to improve recognition of mental health problem in preschoolers. Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2004; 33: 39-42 (Key words: Preschool children, mental health problems, epidemiology, urban) Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} doi: 10.4038/sljch.v33i2.650

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