VALIDATION OF A MOBILE APPLICATION FOR EARLY DETECTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS IN CHILDREN AGED 0 TO 5 YEARS: A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: Early identification of developmental delays in young children optimizes neurodevelopmental outcomes, but coverage and frequency of clinic-based assessments remain inadequate in low-resource settings. Mobile health (mHealth) innovations offer scalable solutions, yet require rigorous validation.

Objective: To validate a mobile application for home-based developmental screening in children aged 0–5 years compared to the Denver Developmental Screening Tool II (DDST-II) and assess parental acceptability.

Methods: A prospective observational study enrolled 340 term, low-risk children (0–60 months) at Saveetha Medical College and Hospital in Chennai. Parents used the custom mobile application for milestone surveillance, while paediatricians, blinded to app results, administered the DDST-II. Sensitivity, specificity, and agreement (Cohen’s kappa) were calculated. Parental satisfaction was assessed via Likert scale.

Results: App and DDST-II screening had substantial agreement (κ=0.814, p<0.001), with sensitivity and specificity of 89.7% and 89.1%, respectively. Most parents (96.5%) reported high satisfaction scores. Baseline awareness of developmental milestones was moderate to low in over 75% of participants.

Conclusions: The app is as reliable as the DDST-II for detecting developmental delays and highly accepted by users, suggesting robust potential for mHealth integration in routine child care and public health interventions.