Maleka, Boledi KaraboVan der Linde, JeannieGlascoe, Frances PageSwanepoel, De Wet2017-06-052016-12Maleka, B.K., Van der Linde, J., Glascoe, F.P. & Swanepoel, D. 2016, 'Developmental screening-evaluation of an m-Health version of the parents evaluation developmental status tools', Telemedicine and e-Health, vol. 22, no. 12.1556-3669 (online)1530-5627 (print)10.1089/tmj.2016.0007http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60794BACKGROUND : Developmental delays are more prevalent in low-income countries and access to developmental screening is severely limited. INTRODUCTION : This study evaluated an m-Health version of a standard developmental screening tool, Parents Evaluation Developmental Status (PEDS) and PEDS: Developmental Milestones (PEDS:DM) for use by community health workers (CHWs) in terms of (1) correspondence with conventional paper-based testing by a speech language pathologist (SLP) and (2) inter-rater reliability compared to an SLP. METHOD : CHWs were trained in a primary healthcare (PHC) setting to administer the newly developed smartphone application version of the PEDS tools. One SLP and two CHWs recruited 207 caregivers who were attending a baby wellness clinic. Caregivers were tested by one CHW using the smartphone application of the PEDS tools; a qualified SLP simultaneously recorded and scored the PEDS tools on the same participants. RESULTS : High positive (100%) and negative correspondence (96%) was found between the paper-based PEDS tools and the smartphone application PEDS tools and between the SLP and CHW. Almost perfect (Cohen’s Kappa) inter-rater agreement between conditions was demonstrated (j = 0.873 to j = 0.961). CONCLUSION : Outcomes of the smartphone application, operated by a CHW, corresponded closely to the gold standard PEDS tools operated by a health professional. Trained CHWs can conduct accurate developmental screening using the smartphone version of the PEDS tools.English© 2016 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. All rights reserved.E-healthM-healthPediatricsTechnologyParents evaluation developmental status (PEDS)Community health worker (CHW)Postprint Article